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FEB  19  19/1 


BR  515  .A67  1893  v. 4  c.2 
Carroll,  Henry  K.  1848-1931 
The  religious  forces  of  the 
United  States 


JAN  29  IS 


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C^e  @tnencan 
C^nvc^  J^istoti^  ^ttitB 

CONSISTING  OF   A  SERIES  OF 

DENOMINATIONAL  HISTORIES  PUBLISHED  UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF 

THE  AMERICAN  SOCIETY  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY 


(Beneraf  (BbifotB 

Rev.  Philip  Schaff,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.  Bishop  John  F.  Hurst,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

Rt.  Rev.  H.  C.  Potter,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.    Rev.  E.  J.  Wolf,  D.  D. 
Rev.  Geo.  P.  Fisher,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.        Henry  C.  Vedder,  M.  A. 
Rev.  Samuel  M.  Jackson,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


Volume  IV 


[     FEB  19 1971 
(American  C^mc^  ^iBtore      ^vi^Ge/c^i  sE^-^*^ 


A  HISTORY 

OF  THE 

EVANGELICAL  LUTHERAN 
CHURCH 

IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


HENRY  EYSTER  JACOBS 

NORTON  PROFESSOR  OF  SYSTEMATIC  THEOLOGY  IN  THE  LUTHERAN 
THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY  IN  PHILADELPHIA 


C^e  Christian  literature  Co» 


MDCCCXCIII 


Copyright,  1893, 
By  The  Christian  '  Literature  Company. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

BIBLIOGRAPHY ix 

INTRODUCTION.— What  is  Lutheranism?— Varieties  of  Luther- 
anism. — Doctrine. — Church  Life. — The  Church  Service. — Church 
Government. — The  Christian  Life. — Missions i 

PERIOD    I. 

THE   SOURCES  AND   ORIGINATION    OF   THE   LUTHERAN 
CHURCH    IN   AMERICA. 

A.D.     1 624- 1 742. 

CIL\P.  I. — The  Lutheran  Church  in  Holland. — The  First  Re- 
formers.— Lutheran  Confessors. — Relations  to  the  Reformed. — 
Flacius  in  the  Netherlands. — Charges  of  the  Reformed. — Synod  of 
Amsterdam. — The  Interdict  upon  Lutheranism. — Laws  of  William 
of  Orange. — The  Church  of  Amsterdam. — Church  Constitutions. — 
The  Lay  Elders. — Causes  of  Decline 21 

CHAP.  II. — The  Lutherans  of  the  New  Netherlands  (1624- 
1700). — The  West  India  Company. — Peter  Stuyvesant. — Laws 
against  the  Lutherans. — Goetwasser's  Banishment. — Liberty  Guar- 
anteed.— Fabritius. — Arensius. — A  Long  Vacancy 46 

CHAP.  HI. — The  Lutheran  Church  in  Sweden. — Gustavus  Vasa. 
— Olaf  Petri. — Diet  of  Westeras. — George  Normann. — The  Roman 
Catholic  Reaction. — Confessional  Basis. — Church  Organization. — 
Swedish  Ordination. — Confirmation 62 

CHAP.  IV.— The  Lutherans  of  New  Sweden  (1637-1700).— Re- 
orus  Torkillus. — Campanius. — Surrender  of  New  Sweden. — Spir- 
itual Destitution. — Bishop  Svedberg's  Intervention. — Arrival  of 
Three  Pastors. — A  Clerical  Impostor. — Pastor  Auren 80 

CHAP.  V. — The  Lutherans  of  New  Sweden  (i 700-1 742). — Ordi- 
nation of  Falckner. — Hesselius. — Dylander. — Inner  History. — The 
Provostship. — The  Church  Council. — The  Language  Question.  ...      96 

CHAP.  VI. — The  First  German  Lutherans  in  America. — The 
Settlers  of  Germantown. — On  the  Hudson. — Schoharie  and  Tulpe- 
hocken. — Kocherthal  .  .' Iio 


vi  TABLE    OF  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAP.  VII. — The  Dutch  Churches  from  Falckner  to  Muhl- 
enberg.— Falckner's  Records. — Berkenmeyer. — A  General  Organ- 
ization Projected. — The  Synod  of  1735. — Between  Two  Fires. — 
Dutch  versus  German. — Sommer 118 

CHAP.  Vni. — The  Halle  Lutherans,  the  Churches  in  Lon- 
don, AND  the  English  Societies. — Spener. — Francke. — Freyl- 
inghausen. — The  Halle  Alumni. — The  London  Lutherans. — The 
London  Pastors. — The  English  Societies. — Union  Movements  ....    133 

CHAP.  IX. — The  Persecutions  of  the  Salzburgers  and  the 
Salzburg  Colony  in  Georgia. — The  Exiles  of  1684. — The  Exiles 
of  1731. — The  Hymns  of  the  Exiles. — A  New  Home  in  Georgia. — 
The  Voyage. — "  Reminiscere  "  Sunday. — Pastoral  Experiences. — 
The  Services. — Care  for  Indians  and  Negroes 150 

CHAP.  X. — The  Salzburgers  and  their  Neighbors. — ^John  Wes- 
ley. —  Charles  Wesley.  —  Whitefield.  —  Character  of  Boltzius.  — 
Lemke. — Rabenhorst. — The  Georgia  Church  Constitution. — Stoe- 
ver  in  Virginia 169 

CHAP.  XL — The  Forerunners  of  Muhlenberg. — Stoever  and 
Henkel. — The  Commission  to  Europe. — New  Difificulties. — A 
Qu-istion  of  Salary. — Zinzendorf's  Lutheranism.— rBengel  and  Fre- 
senius. — Zinzendorf  in  Philadelphia. — Zinzeuaorf's  Scheme. — Val- 
entine Kiaft 187 

PERIOD   II. 

the  first  attempts  at  organization. 

a.d.   1742-1817. 

CHAP.  XII. — Muhlenberg's  Call  and  Arrival. — At  Gottingen 
and  Halle. — In  England. — In  Georgia  and  Carolina. — Conflict  with 
Zinzendorf   209 

CHAP.  XIII. — Beginning  the  Work. — Reinforcements. — Hartwig. 
— Troubles  at  Lancaster. — Confession  before  Communion. — Pas- 
toral Experiences. — Pastoral  Fidelity. — The  Redemptioners 219 

CHAP.  XIV.— Projects  of  Church  Organization.— Lay  Efforts 
for  Organization. — Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania. — The  Proceed- 
ings.— The  Office  of  Oversight. — An  Urgent  Appeal. — Almost  Lost.   237 

CHAP.  XV. — Muhlenberg  in  New  York. — Acrelius  and  Wran- 
gel.— Preaching  in  Three  Languages.— Cooperation  of  the  Swedes. 
— The  Greatest  Swede. — New  Life 250 


Table  of  contents.  vii 

PAGE 

CHAP.  XVI. — Synodical  Organization  Completed. — Reorganiz- 
ing the  Synod. — First  Synodical  Constitution. — Congregational 
Constitution. — The  First  Liturgy. — The  Liturgy  of  1748 258 

CHAP.  XVn. — Relation  of  Muhlenberg  and  his  Associates  to 
OTHER  Communions. — The  Limits  of  Liberality. — Muhlenberg  and 
Episcopalians. — Wrangel  Removed. — Muhlenberg  on  Episcopacy. 
— What  is  Ordination? — Whitefield  Preaches  in  Zion's. — Michael 
Schlatter , 276 

CHAP.  XVIIL — Internal  and  External  Growth;  Decline  of 
THE  Swedish  Churches. — Muhlenberg's  Contemporaries. — A 
Native  Ministry. — Virginia. — North  and  South  Carolina. — Georgia. 
— Maine  and  Nova  Scotia. — Wrangel's  Recall  Resented. — Ameri- 
can Pastors  Demanded 290 

PERIOD   in. 
deterioration. 

A.D.    I787-1817. 

CHAP.  XIX. — Rationalism  and  Indifferentism. — Constitution  of 
1792. — Confessional  Laxity. — Quitman's  Catechism. — F.  C.  Schaef- 
fer. — Confusion  in  the  South. — Franklin  College. — A  Lutheran- 
Reformed  Seminary. — The  Rural  Parishes 309 

CHAP.  XX.— Some  Difficult  Problems.— A  Church  Trial.— Tran- 
sition of  Language. — Theological  Instruction. — Geographical  Ex- 
tension.— The  Pennsylvania  Hymn-book. — First  English  Hymn- 
book. — New  York  Hymn-books. — Liturgies  and  Catechisms. — The 
Yellow  Fever  of  1793. — Washington's  Funeral 327 

PERIOD    IV. 
revival  and  expansion. 

A.D.    181 7-1860. 

CHAP.  XXI. — New  Factors. — The  General  Synod. — New  Waves 
of  Immigration. — Reactionary  German  Movements. — Division  of 
the  Ministerium. — The  Hagerstown  Convention. — Pennsylvania 
Withdraws. — Struggling  in  Weakness. — S.  S.  Schmucker. — The 
Gettysburg  Seminary. — "  American  Lutheranism. " — Paralysis  of 
Church  Life 351 

CHAP.  XXII. — A  Missionary  Era.  —  Rhenius  of  Palamcotta. — 
Charles  Frederick  Heyer. — The  Guntur  Mission. — Home  Missions. 


viii  TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

— New  Synods. — Wittenberg  College. — The  Pittsburg  Deaconesses. 

— Prominent  Ministers. — The  Ohio  Synod 373 

CHAP.  XXIIL— The  Confessional  Reaction.— The  Buffalo  Synod. 
—The  Missouri  Synod.— C.  F.  W.  Walther.— Spiritual  Conflicts. 
— Walther  as  a  Preacher. — Sihler  and  Wyneken. — The  Commission 
to  Germany. — The  Iowa  Synod. — The  Norwegians. — The  Swedes.  393 

CHAP.  XXIV. — Growth  and  Conflicts  in  the  Older  Synods. 
— Study  of  German  Theology. — Lohe. — Pennsylvania  Returns. — 
Charles  F.  Schaeffer. — The  Definite  Platform. — Charles  Porterfield 
Krauth. — The  General  Synod's  Basis. — An  Educational  Process. — 
The  Melanchthon  Synod. — The  Colleges. — Heyer  in  Minnesota. — 
English  Lutheran  Literature. — The  Church  Papers    415 

PERIOD   V. 

reorganization. 

a.d.   i860 . 

CHAP.  XXV.— The  Era  of  Disintegration  (1860-67).— The  Ben- 
nett Law. — The  Augustana  Synod. — The  Civil  War. — The  Gen- 
eral Synod,  South. — Desolations  of  War. — The  Crisis  at  York. — 
Amended  Doctrinal  Basis. — The  Philadelphia  Seminary. — Influence 
of  the  Seminary. — Fort  Wayne. — Synodical  Changes. — Two  Theo- 
ries of  Polity 445 

CHAP.  XXVI. — The  Era  of  Reconstruction  (1867-77). — Princi- 
ples of  General  Council. — The  Four  Points. — Pulpit  Fellowship. — 
The  Akron  Declaration. — The  Galesburg  Rule. — The  Church  Book. 
— Heyer  Returns  to  India. — Schmidt  and  Paulsen  in  India. — The 
Conservative  Reformation. — Joseph  Augustus  Seiss. — The  Diets  of 
1877  and  1878. — Day's  Work  in  Africa. — The  Synodical  Confer- 
ence.— The  Independent  Synods 471 

CHAP.  XXVII. — The  Era  of  Reapproach  and  Efforts  for 
Union  among  the  Separated  Bodies  (1877-93). — The  Predes- 
tination Controversy. — Does  Faith  cause  Election? — The  Common 
Service. — The  Gotwald  Trial. — Issues  within  the  General  Council. 
— The  United  Norwegian  Synod. — The  Luther  Jubilee. — Bishop 
von  Scheele. — Foreign  Missions. — Deaconesses. — The  Need  of  the 
Hour 502 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


I.  The  Lutheran  Church  and   its  Doctrine,  History,  Organiza- 
tion, AND  Worship  in  General. 

The  Book  of  Concord,  or  Symbolical  Books  of  the  Evangelical  Liitheran 
Church.  In  German  and  Latin :  Miiller  (sixth  edition,  1886).  Li 
Latin  :  Francke,  Leipzig,  1846-47.  In  English,  two  vols.  :  Jacobs, 
Philadelphia,  1882  and  1883. 

Scliniid.,  The  Doctrinal  Theology  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church. 
(Translated  by  Hay  and  Jacobs.)  Second  edition,  Philadelphia,  Luther- 
an Board  of  Publication,  i88g. 

Krauth,  The  Conseii'ative  Reformation  and  its  Theology.  Philadelphia, 
J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.,  1871.  (Compare  his  masterly  article  in  John- 
son's Cyclopaedia.) 

Seiss,  Ecclesia  Lntherana.  Philadelphia,  Lutheran  Bookstore,  1868. — Ln- 
ther  and  the  Reformation,  1883. 

Remensnyder,  The  Lutheran  Manual.  New  York,  Boschen  &  Werfer, 
1893. 

Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom.  Fifth  edition.  New  York,  Harper  Bros., 
1890.     Vols.  i.  and  iii. 

Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian  Church.  Vol.  vi.  (The  German  Refor-- 
mation.)     Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1888. 

Oehler,  Lehrhuch  der  Symbolik.     Tubingen,  1876. 

Ricllter,  A.  L.,  Die  Evangelischen  Kirchenordnungen  des  Sechszehnten 
Jahrhunderts.     Last  edition,  Leipzig,  E.  J.  Giinther,  1871. 

EJchter,  A.  Li.,  Lehrbtcch  des  L\atholischen  und  Evangelischen  Kirchen- 
rechts.     Leipzig,  B.  Tauchnitz,  1874. 

Stahl,  Die  Kirchenverfassung  nach  Lehre  und  Recht  der  Protestanten. 
Second  edition,  Erlangen,  Theodor  Biasing,  1862. 

Kliefoth,  Lituigische  A bhatidlungeti.  Schwerin  and  Rostock.  Eight  vols., 
1854-61. 

Schoeberlein,  Ueber  den  liturgischen  Ausbau  des  Gemeindegottesdienstes. 
Gotha,  Andreas  Perthes,  1859. 

Lohe,  Agende  fir  Christliche  Gemeinden  von  Liitherischen  Bekenntnisses. 
Dritte  Auflage  besorgt  von  J.  Deinzer,  Nordlingen,  1884. 

Walther,  Americanische-Lutherische  Pastoral  Theologie.  St.  Louis,  Concor- 
dia Verlag,  1872. 

Horn,  Outlines  of  Liturgies.  Philadelphia,  Lutheran  Board  of  Publica- 
tion, 1890. 

Jacobs,  The  Lutheran  Movement  in  England,  and  its  Literary  Momiments. 
Philadelphia,  G.  W.  Frederick,  1890. 

ix 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


II.  MS.  Collections  of  Historical  Material. 

The  library  of  the  Lutheran  Historical  Society  at  Gettysburg,  Pa.,  con- 
tains MSS.  of  Berkenmeyer,  Muhlenberg,  Brunnholtz,  and  Goering. 

The  archives  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  at  Mount  Airy  contain 
the  journals  of  Muhlenberg,  beginning  with  his  voyage,  and  continuing, 
with  a  few  interruptions,  almost  to  his  death,  besides  volumes  of  letters 
and  other  material  from  his  hand.  An  extensive  collection  of  the  papers  of 
Schaum,  the  journals,  papers,  and  correspondence  of  Helmuth,  volumes  of 
notes  by  H.  E.  Muhlenberg,  MSS.  relating  to  J.  F.  Schmidt,  the  diary  of  the 
pioneer  home  missionary  Paul  Henkel,  the  protocol  of  the  minutes  of  the 
ministerium  from  1784,  the  files  of  official  papers  complete  and  admirably 
arranged  from  1800,  transcripts  from  the  papers  of  the  Halle  archives  by 
Dr.  \V.  Germann,  transcript  of  J.  C.  Stoever's  private  journal  of  ministerial 
acts,  and  a  large  number  of  papers  of  the  pioneer  foreign  missionary,  Heyer, 
are  among  its  treasures. 

Valuable  material  is  preserved  at  Amsterdam,  Holland;  at  Gloria  Dei 
Church,  Philadelphia,  and  Old  Swedes'  Church,  Wilmington,  and  at  St. 
Matthew's  German  Church  (Broome  and  Elizabeth  Streets),  New  York. 
The  material  at  Amsterdam  has  recently  been  carefully  examined  by  Dr. 
Nicum ;  and  the  documents  at  New  York,  Gloria  Dei,  Wilmington,  and 
Gettysburg  by  Professor  Grabner.  The  revised  edition  of  the  "  Hallesche 
Nachrichten  "  has  embodied,  so  far  as  published,  the  results  of  the  thorough 
study  by  Dr.  Mann  of  the  large  mass  of  MSS.  that  gradually  accumulated 
under  his  care  at  Mount  Airy.  Much  is  also  used  in  his  "  Life  and  Times 
of  Muhlenberg." 

III.  Printed  Collections. 

I .   Bibliography. 
Morris,  Bibliotheca  Ltitherana.     Philadelphia,  1876. 

2.   Statistics, 
{a)  European  Relations. 
Staudlin,  Kirchliche  Geographie  tind  Statistik.    Two  vols.,  Tubingen,  1804. 
Augusti,  Beytrage  zur  Geschichte  iind  Statistik  der  Evangelischen  Kirche. 

Three  parts,  Leipzig,  1837. 
Wiggers,  Kirchliche  Statistik.     Two  vols.,  Hamburg  and  Gotha,  1842. 
Lenker,  Ltitherans  in  All  Lands.     Milwaukee,  1893. 

{b)  American.     (See  DOCUMENTS.) 
Stall,  Lutheran  Year  Book.     Philadelphia,  1884-88. 
Ochsenford,  Lutheran  Church  Anmial.      Philadelphia,  1890, 
Roth,  J.  D.,  Handbook  of  Ltitheranism.      Utica,  1891. 
Ochsenford,  in  Appleton's  Annual  Cyclopcedia. 

The  almanacs  published  by  the  Lutheran  Board,  Philadelphia  (Sheeleigh), 
the  Lutheran  Bookstore  (Ochsenford),  and  Diehl,  Allentown,  present  an- 
nual summaries  of  the  statistics  of  the  entire  church  in  America. 

3.  Minutes  of  Synods  and  Diets. 

See  "Hallesche  Nachrichten"  and  "  Evangelisches  Magazin  "  for  some 
of  the  earlier  proceedings. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  XI 

The  Historical  Library  at  Gettysburg  contains   almost  complete  sets  of 
printed  minutes.      MSS.  in  archives  at  Mount  Airy  and  at  Gettysburg. 
Jacobs  and  Baum,  Proceedings  of  the  First  Free  Lutheran  Diet  (iSjy). 
Philadelphia,    1878. — Baum   and   Kiinkelman,   Proceedings  of  the 
Second  Free  Lutheran  Diet  (1878).     Philadelphia,  1879. 

4.  Histories  of  Synods. 

Nicum,  Geschichte  des  N'eiu  York''s  Ministerium.  Reading,  Pa.,  1888. 
— Spielman,  Abriss  der  Geschichte  der  Ev.-L'iith.  Synode  von  Ohio. 
Columbus,  1880. — Henkel,  S.,  History  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Tentiessee  Synod.  New  Market,  1890. — Schirmer,  Historical  Sketches 
of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Synod  of  South  Carolina.  Charleston, 
S.  C,  1875.  (Compare  Bernheim,  ut  infra.) — Strobel,  P.  A.,  Me- 
morial  Volume  to  Commemorate  the  Semi-Centennial  Anniversary  of  the 
Hartzuick Lutheran  Synod.  Philadelphia,  1881. — Kostering,  Auswan- 
derung  der  sdchsischen  Lutheraner.  St.  Louis,  i860. — Hochstetter, 
Die  Geschichte  der  Ev.-Luth.  Missouri  Synod.  Dresden,  1885, — History 
of  Ev.-Luth.  Synod  of  East  Pennsylvania.      Philadelphia,  1893. 

Grabner,  Half  a  Century  of  Soimd  L^itheranism  in  America.  St.  Louis, 
1893.  (For  Swedish  Augustana  Synod,  see  Norelius  in  "  Lutheran 
Church  Review,"  vol.  v.  ;  General  Synod  in  "  Evangelical  and  Lu- 
theran Quarterly  Reviews," /^j-j/wy  General  Council,  Spaeth,  "Lu- 
theran Church  Review,"  vol.  iv.) 

5.  Histories  of  Institutions. 

Breidenbaugh,    E.    S.,    The    Pennsylvania     College    Book,    1832-1882. 

Philadelphia,  1882. 
Ochsenford,    Muhlenberg    College.       A     Quarter     Centennial     Memorial 

Volume.     Allentown,  1892. 
These  works    contain   biographical   sketches   of   professors,   alumni,   and 
many  of  the  trustees.     Among  the  hundreds  of  names  there  are  many  of  the 
more  prominent  clergymen  and  laymen  of  this  century. 

6.  Histories  of  Congregations. 

For  obvious  reasons  no  attempt  can  be  made  here  to  record  the  volumes 
and  numerous  pamphlets  on  this  topic.  For  the  history  of  the  earlier  con- 
gregations down  to  date  of  the  book,  see  Mann,  Schmucker,  and  Germann's 
new  edition  of  the  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten."  See  also  Synodical 
Histories. 

7.  Collections  of  Biographies. 

Schierenbeck,    Lebesbeschreibungen    von    Ltcth.    Predigern    in   Amerika. 

Selinsgrove,  Pa.,  1881-83. 
Sprague,  Annals  of  the  American  Lutheran  Pulpit.     New  York,  1869. 
Jennson,  American  Lutheran  Biographies.     Milwaukee,  1891. 

8.  Legal  Trials  and  Decisions. 

Carson,  Trial  of  Frederick  Eberle  and  Others  for  Illegally  Conspiring  to 
Prevent  the  Introduction  of  the  English  Language  into  the  So-vice  of  St. 
MichaeVs  and  Ziori's  Churches  Belonging  to  the  German  Congregation  in 
Philadelphia.      Philadelphia,  181 7. 


xii  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Sandford,  L.  H.,  Assistant  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
Opinion,  July  ly,  1844,  -upon  the  Angsburg  Confession  of  Faith  as  the 
Creed  of  the  Lutheran   Church,  and   the  Departures   therefrom   of  the 
Franckean  Synod.     New  York,  1845. 
In  Court  of  Common  Pleas  of    Lehigh  County,  April  Term,   1873,  paper 
books  of  plaintiffs  (I.  Trexler,  etc.),  and  defendants  (W.  G.  Mennig,  etc.). 
The  former  contains  testimony  of  Drs.  C.  P.  Krauth,  B.  M.  Schmucker, 
C.  W.  Schaeffer,  etc.,  concerning  the  history,  doctrines,  and  usages  of 
the  Lutheran  Church  in  America.      (Compare  Hull,  "  The  Lutheran 
Church  in  the  Courts,"  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  vi.,  pp.  296  sqq.) 
[A  learned  attorney  has  informed  us  that  there  is  a  vast  amount  of  valuable 
material  on  the  history  of  the  Lutheran  Church  scattered  through  the  numer- 
ous volumes  of  the  Pennsylvania  Reports.] 

IV.  European  and  Denominational  Relations. 

1.  Holland. 

Brandt,  Histoiy  of  the  Refonnation  and  Other  Ecclesiastical  Transactions  in 
and  about  the  Low  Coimtries.  English  translation,  4  vols,  folio,  Lon- 
don, 1720. 

Gerdesius,  Historia  Refonnationis.  Tom.  iii.  Groningen  and  Bremen, 
1749. 

Ulenberg,  Geschichte  der  Luthenschen  Reformation.  German  translation, 
Mainz,  1837.      Original  published  in  1622. 

Ritter,  iM.  Matthice  Illyrici  Leben  und  Tod.  Second  edition,  Frankfort 
and  Leipzig,  1725. 

Preger,  Matthias  Illyricus  und  seine  Zeit.     Erlangen,  1861. 

Schliisselberg,  Epistohe  Theologomm.     Rostock,  1724. 

Benthem,  Hollandischer  Alrch-  und  Schulen-Staat.  Frankfort  and  Leip- 
zig, 1698, 

Jacobi  in  Walch's  Neueste  Religionsgeschichte  (lyyi).     Vol.  2. 

Fliedner  in  Hengstenberg's  Kirchoizeitung  iox  1831. 

Nieuwenhuis,  Geschiedenis  der  Amsterdam sc he  Ltitheresche  Gemeente. 
Amsterdam,  Gebhard,  1856. 

Nieuwenhuis,  Gedetikbock  mitgegeven  by  det  honderdjarig  bestaan  der 
Ileroteld  Luth.  Gemeente  te  Amsterdam.  Amsterdam,  Metzler  &  Basting, 
1891. 

Schulte,  Jacobi,  Nieuwenhms,  Bydragen  tot  de  Geschiedenes  der  Ev.- 
Luth.  Kirk  in  de  Nederlanden.     Two  parts. 

Schulte,  Jacobi,  Nieuwenhuis,  Ond  en  Nieund  mit  de  Geschiedenes 
der  iVederl.  Ljith.  Kirk.      V'we  parts. 

Nieuwenhuis,  Geschiedenis  der  Ev.-Luth,  Gemeente  te  Gravenhage. 
Amsterdam,  Gebhard,  1856. 

2.  Siveden. 

Schrockh,   Kirchengeschichte    seit  der   Reformation.      Vol.    ii.      Leipzig, 

1804. 
Baelter,    IIisto?'iska    Anmdrkjiingar    om    Kyrko-Co-emoniei'ua.       Orebrc, 

_i838. 
Knos,  Die  7>orneh?uste7t  Eigenthiimlichkeiten  der  Sch"ivedischen  Kirchetiver- 
fassung.      Stuttgart,  1 85 2. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  Xlii 

Geijer,  History  of  the  S^vedes.     (Translated  by  Turner.)      London  (w.  d.). 
Fryxell,  History  of  Sweden.     (Translated  by  Mary  Howitt.)     Two  vols. 

London,  1844. 
Anjou,  History  of  the  Reformation  in  Sweden.      (Translated  by  Mason.) 

New  York,  1859. 
Butler,  History  of  the  Reformation  in  Szveden.     New  York,  1883. 

3.  Pietism  and  its  London  Adherents. 

Spener,  Thcologische  Bedenken.     Halle,  1 700-11. 

Hoszbach,  P.  J.  Spener  wid  seine  Zeit.     Two  vols.     Berlin,  1853. 

Francke,  Scgensvolle  Fussstapfen.  N^achricht  von  dem  Way  sen- Hans. 
Vols,  i.-vi.      Halle,  1809. 

Lange,  Joachim,  Apologetische  Erldutening.     Halle,  1719. 

Schmid,  H.,  Die  Gescliichte  des  Pietismus.     Nordlingen,  1863'. 

Germann,  W.,  Ziegcnbalg  Jind  Pliitschaii.  Ein  Bctrag  zur  Geschichte  des 
Pietismus.     (From  new  researches  in  MSS.  at  Halle.)     Erlangen,  1868. 

Guericke,  Life  of  A.  H.  Francke.     (Translated.)     London,  1847. 

Knapp,  J.  G.,  Denkmal  der  G.  A.  Francken.     Halle,  1770. 

Burckhardt,  Kirchengeschichte  der  Deiitschen  Getneinen  in  London.  Tu- 
bingen, 1798. 

Hassencamp,  Nachricht  von  netiem  Versuchen  die  Prot.  Kirchen  in 
Deutschland  mit  der  bischofiichen  iti  Engelland  zu  vereinigen.  In 
Walch's  Neiieste  Religions-Geschichte.  (Lemgo,  1771.)  Vol.  ii.,  pp. 
121  sqq. 

Stoughton,  Religion  in  England  during  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne.  Two 
vols.,  London,  1878. 

4.    The  Salzburg  Persecution. 

Gocking",  Vollkommene  Emigrationsgeschichte  von  denen  at  is  dem  Ertz-Biss- 

thum  Salzburg  vertriebenen  Lutheranern.      Frankfort  and  Leipzig,  I734« 
Hillinger,  Kirch-Geschichte  des  Ertz-Bischofthum  Salzburg's.     (Contains 

Schaitberger's  Wahrhaftiger  Bericht.)      1732. 
Hagenbach,  History   of  the    Church  in    the   Eighteenth  and  AHneteenth 

Centuries.     (Translated  by  Hurst.)     Two  vols.,  New  York,  1869. 

5.    The  Moravian  Factor. 

Spangenberg,  Life  of  Nicholas  Lezuis,  Count  Zinzendorf  English  trans- 
lation, London,  1838. 

Cranz,  Alte  und  N'eue  B ruder  Historic.     Three  vols.,  Barby,  1774" 

Zinzendorf,  Eine  Sammlung  Offentlicher  Reden  .  .  .  in  dem  Jahr  1^42, 
mehrentheils  in  det?i  Nordlichen  Theil  von  America.     Biidingen,  1744- 

Zinzendorf,  Biidingische  Sammlung.     Biidingen,  1740-41. 

Fresenius,  Hermhutische  Nachrichten.  Vols,  i.-xvi.  Frankfort  and  Leip- 
zig, 1748-53- 

"Rem^el^  Abriss  der  so  gen.  Briidergemeine.     Berlin,  1858. 

Burk,  Life  of  J.  A.  Bengel,     Translated,  London,  1837. 

V.  Reports  of  the  Founders,  and  their  Contemporaries. 
I.    The  Swedes. 
Campanius  Holmiensis,  Thomas,  Kort  Beskrifning  om  Provincien  Nya 
Swerige    uti  America.     Stockholm,    1702.      Translated    by    Peter    S. 
Duponceau,  Philadelphia,  1834. 


xiv  BIBLIOGRAPHY, 

Bjorck,   Eric  T.,   Ett  Omt  Fast  an  enfaldigt  Fahr-Wal,      Stockholm, 

1715- 
Bjorck,  Tobias  E.,  Dissertatio  Gradttahs  de  PlantaUone  EcclesicB   Sve- 

ca}ict  in  America.      Upsala,  I73I' 
Svedberg,  Jasper,  America  Illwninata.     Skara,  1732. 
Hesselius,  A.,  Kort  Berettelse   Om   Then  Svenska  Kyrkios   ndrwarande 

Tilstand  in  America.     Norrkoping,  1 725. 
Kalm,  P.,  En  resa  til  N.  Aiuerica.     Stockholm,   1753-61.      Translated 

by  Forster,  three  vols.,  Warrington,  1770. 
Acrelius,  Israel,  Besh'ifning  Om  De  Swenska  Forsamlingars  Forna  och 

A^dj-7i>arande  Tilstand   Uti  Det  sd  Kallade  Nya  Sverige.     Stockholm, 

1759.     Translated  by  W.  M.  Reynolds,  Philadelphia,  1874. 

2.    The  Salzburg  Colony. 

TJrlsperger,  Samuel,  Ansfiihrliche  N^achricht  von  den  Sahburgischen 
Emigranten,  die  sich  in  America  neidergelassen  haben.  In  twelve 
parts.      Halle,  1735-46. 

TJrlsperger,  Samuel,  Americanisches  Ackerwerk  Gottes,  oder  Zuverldssige 
Nachrichten  den  Ziistand  der  American,  Englischen,  und  von  Sahburg- 
ischen Emigranten  Pflanzstand  Ebenezer  in  Georgia  betreffend,     Halle, 

1754. 

3.    The  Pennsylvania  Lutherans. 

Nachrichten  von  den  vereinigteti  Deutschen  Ev.-Ltith.  Gemeinen  in  N.  A.^ 
absonderlich  in  Pennsylvanien.  Mit  einer  Vorrede  von  D.  Johann  Lude- 
7vig  Schulze.     Two  vols.     Halle,  1750-87. 

Mami,  Schmucker,  and  G-ermann.  The  above  republished  with  ex- 
haustive notes  on  geographical,  biographical,  and  historical  allusions. 
Allentown,  Pa.,  vol.  i.,  1886.  This  most  valuable  storehouse  of 
material  has  been  left  incomplete  by  the  death  of  the  lamented  American 
editors.  Translation  begun  by  C.  W.  Schaeffer,  Part  I.,  Reading, 
Pa.,  1882. 

Muhlenberg',  Heinrich  Melchior,  Selbstbiographie,  1^11-43.  A  us  dem 
Jllissionsarchive  der  Franckischen  Stiftungen  zu  Halle.  Mit  Zusdtzen 
und  Erlduterujigen  von  Dr.  W.  Germann.     Allentown,  Pa.,  1881. 

4.    The  North  Carolinians. 

Reports  similar  to  the  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten  "  were  made  by  the  mis- 
sionaries in  North  Carolina  to  Helmstadt,  and  there  published. 

VI.  Histories. 

I .   General. 

Hazelius,  History  of  the  American  Lutheran  Church,  from  its  Commence- 

ment  in  168^  to  the  Year  1842.     Zanesville,  O.,  1846. 
Andersen,  Den  Evang.-Lutherske  Kirkes  Historic.     (In  Danish.     Brings 

the  history  down  to  1820,  and  closes  with  a  statistical  survey  from  1820 

to  1888.)     New  York,  1888. 
Wolf,  The  Lutherans  in  America.     New  York,  1889. 
Nicum,  Die  Lutheraner  in  America.     New  York,    1891.      (A  translation 

of  the  above,  with  the  addition  of  much  valuable  matter.) 
Grabner,  Gcscliichte  der  Lntlicrischcn  Kirche  in  America.     Vol.  i.  brings 

the  history  down  to  1820,  St.  Louis,  1892. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  XV 

2.    0/  Particular  Periods  and  Ldcalities, 

Schaeffer,  C  W.,  Early  History  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America. 
New  edition,  Philadelphia,  1868. 

Ferris,  History  of  the  Original  Settlements  on  the  Delaware.  Wilmington, 
1846. 

Clay,  Annals  of  the  Swedes  on  the  Delaware.  Second  edition,  Philadelphia, 
1858. 

Norberg,  Svenska  Kyrkans  Mission  vid  Delazuare.     Stockholm,  1893. 

Strobel,  P.  A.,  History  of  the  Salzbiirgers.  Baltimore,  1855.  (Com- 
pare Jones,  The  Dead  To7uns  of  Georgia.  Savannah,  1878.  Hurst, 
Bishop  J.  F.,  in  "  Harper's  Magazine  "  for  August,  1892.) 

Bernheim,  Gr  .  D.,  History  of  the  German  Settlements  and  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  North  and  South  Carolina.      Philadelphia,  1872. 

Roth,  D.  L.,  Acadie  and  the  Acadians.      Philadelphia,  1890. 

Focht,  D.  H.,  The  CJuirches  between  the  Mountains.     Baltimore,  1862. 

Schmucker,  B.  M.,  The  Organization  of  the  Congregation  in  the  Early 
Lutheran  Chu?'ches  in  A?nerica.      Philadelphia,  1887. 

VII.  Biographies. 

Stoever,  M.  L.,  Life  and  Times  of  H.  M.  Muhlenberg.  Philadelphia, 
1856. 

Mann,  W.  J.,  Life  and  Times  of  H.  M.  Muhlenberg.  Philadelphia, 
1887. 

Mann,  W.  J.,  H.  M.  Muhlenberg's  Leben  und  IVerken.  Philadelphia, 
1891. 

Weiser,  C.  Z.,  Life  of  Conrad  Weiser.      Philadelphia,  1876. 

Hay,  C.  A.,  Lives  of  Goering,  George  Lochman,  and  B.  Kurtz.  Philadel- 
phia, 1887. 

Morris,  J.  G.,  Li%>es  of  C.  A.  G.,  T,  and  C.  A.  Stork.     Philadelphia,  1886. 

Stoever,  M.  L.,  Memorial  of  P.  F.  Mayer.      Philadelphia,  1859. 

Bachman,  C.  F.,  Life  of  John  Bachman.     Charleston,  S.  C,  1888. 

Schmucker,  B.  M.,  and  W.  J.  Mann,  Memorial  of  C.  F.  Schaeffer. 
1880. 

Schmucker,  B.  M.,  Memorial  of  C.  P.  Krauth,  Jr.,  1883,  and  A.  T. 
Geissenhainer.      1883. 

Haupt,  C.  F.,  Life  of  E.  Greenwald.      Lancaster,  1890. 

Fox,  J.  B.,  Life  of  A.  J.  Fox.      Philadelphia,  1888. 

Spaeth,  A.,  Memorial  of  B.  M.  Schmucker,  1889,  and  IV.  J.  Mann.  Phila- 
delphia, 1893. 

Mann,  EmmaT.,  Alemoir  of  IV.  J.  Mann.     Philadelphia,  1893. 

Giinther,  Dr.  C.  F.  W.  Walther.     Lebensbild.     St.  Louis,  Mo.,  1890. 

Sihler,  Dr.  W.,  Lebenslauf  (Autobiography).     Two  vols.,  St.  Louis,  1880. 

VIII.  Doctrinal,  Symbolical,  and  Controversial. 

The  Distinctive  Doctrines  and  Usages  of  the  General  Bodies  of  the  Evangelical 
Lutheran  Chicrch  in  the  United  States  (Loy,  Valentine,  Fritschel, 
Jacobs,  Horn,  and  Pieper).     Philadelphia,  1893. 

Grosse,  Unterscheidungslehren  der  Hauptsdchlichsten  sich  Lutherisch  nen- 
nenden  Synoden.  St.  Louis,  1889.  (Compare  Nicum,  "  Lutheran 
Church  Review,"  vol.  ix.,  pp.  154  sqq.) 


xvi  BIBLIOGRArHY. 

Fritschel,  S.,  Die  Untcrscheidtmgslehren  der  Synoden  von  Icnva  it nd  Mis- 
souri.    Wavcrly,  1893, 

Spaeth,  A.,  Amcricanische  BcleitcJihing.     Philadelphia,  1882. 

Schmucker,  S.  S.,  Popular  Theology.  First  edition,  Andover,  Mass., 
1834;  9th,  Philadelphia,  i860. — The  Avierican  Lutheran  Church. 
Philadelphia,  1852. — Lutheran  Mantial.  1855. — The  Definite  Platform. 
1855. — American  Lutheranis7n  Vindicated.      Baltimore,  1856. 

Mann,  W.  J.,  A  Plea  for  the  Augsburg  Confession.  Philadelphia,  1 856. — 
Lutheranism  in  America.      1857. 

Hoffman,  J.  N.,  The  Broken  Platform.      Philadelphia,  1856. 

Brown,  J.  A.,  The  New  Theology,  its  Abettors  and  Defenders.  Gettys- 
burg, 1857. 

Holman,  S.  A.  (Editor),  Lectures  on  the  Augsburg  Confession  on  the 
Ilolman  Foundation.     Philadelphia,  1888. 

Nicum,  Confessional  Liistory  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  the  United  States 
in  Proceedings  of  American  Society  of  Church  History,  December,  i8gi. 
New  York,  1892. 

Gotwald,  L.  A.,  Trial  upon  Charges  of  Disloyalty  to  Doctrinal  Basis  of 
Wittenberg  Theological  Seminary.     Philadelphia,  1893. 


THE   LUTHERANS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

WHAT    IS    LUTHERANISM? 

If  the  principle  be  correct  that  the  biography  of  a  man 
cannot  be  properly  written  without  tracing  his  ancestry 
and  examining  the  influences  that  have  contributed,  long 
before  his  birth,  to  the  formation  of  his  character,  it  is  no 
less  true  that  the  past  history  and  the  present  condition  of 
the  various  Christian  denominations  of  America  cannot  be 
rightly  understood  unless  we  recur  to  their  sources  in 
Europe  and  analyze  the  individual  factors  that  have  en- 
tered into  their  life  before  they  reached  this  country.  As 
no  communion  can  be  absolutely  sundered  from  its  past 
history,  the  historical  standpoint  must  always  be  the  basis 
of  all  enduring  practical  work.  We  cannot  deal  success- 
fully with  men  unless  we  know  who  they  are,  and  whence 
they  came,  and  what  they  mean.  The  historical  ante- 
cedents and  relations  and  development  must  be  appreciated 
and  recognized  before  any  results  can  be  expected  from 
the  kindly  feeling  and  earnest  efforts  of  even  the  warmest 
advocates  of  Christian  union.  A  candid  and  discriminating 
view  of  its  precise  historical  situation  on  the  part  of  those 
upon  whom  rests  the  responsibility  for  leadership  is  an 
indispensable  prerequisite  to  all  progress  within  a  church. 


2  THE  LUTHERANS. 

Even  where  there  are  the  best  of  reasons  for  abandoning, 
in  some  directions,  the  past  development,  it  must  be  done 
intelHgently,  or  far  more  may  be  lost  than  is  gained.  The 
Lutheran  Church  in  America  cannot  be  understood,  there- 
fore, without  an  acquaintance  with  the  Lutheran  Church 
in  the  centers  from  which  it  has  originated.  The  history 
of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America  actually  begins  with 
the  Reformation. 

Lutheranism  is  a  specific  form  of  Christian  life.  The 
propriety  of  the  name  as  a  designation  of  that  form  of  life 
is  not  for  us  to  determine.  Apart  from  our  willingness  or 
unwillingness  to  assume  it,  it  has  become  a  fixed  term  for 
a  definite  and  well-known  object.  As  religion  is  not  mere 
intellectualism,  or  mere  sentiment,  or  mere  activity,  so 
Lutheranism,  as  a  form  of  the  only  true  religion,  Christian- 
ity, is  far  more  than  a  system  of  doctrines,  or  a  mode  of 
worship,  or  a  form  of  church  organization.  The  spirit  of 
a  church  is  always  greater  and  deeper  than  its  expression ; 
its  faith  is  always  greater  than  its  confession.  Lutheran- 
ism is  a  mode  of  viewing  and  receiving  and  living  the 
truths  of  Christianity ;  or  rather  of  viewing  and  receiving 
and  living  in  mystical  union  with  Him  who  is  the  begin- 
ning and  end  of  all  these  truths.  The  peculiarities  which 
mark  its  relation  to  Christ  determine  peculiarities  with 
respect  to  other  objects.  The  principles  underlying  the 
doctrinal  position  reappear  in  the  spheres  of  ethics  and 
liturgies,  of  homiletics  and  church  government.  Even  the 
faith  of  a  great  sculptor  or  a  great  musical  composer  will 
express  itself  in  a  different  way  according  to  the  peculiar- 
ities of  the  confession  by  which  his  religious  life  has  been 
nourished  and  trained.  Everything  that  enters  into  the 
religious  life,  or  that  proceeds  from  it,  is  molded  and  col- 
ored by  the  specific  form  which  that  life  assumes. 

When  it  is  claimed  that  Lutheranism  is  a  specific  form 


VARIETIES   OE  LUTIIEKANISM.  3 

of  Christian  life,  it  is  implied  that  there  are  other  specific 
forms  in  which  the  same  Christian  life  exists,  and  other 
modes  of  viewing  and  receiving  and  living  the  common 
faith  of  the  gospel.  It  is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  book 
to  inquire  whether  there  may  not  be  a  Providential  guid- 
ance controlling  confessional  divergences,  in  order  to  pro- 
duce prominent  representatives  and  outspoken  confessors 
of  certain  sides  or  phases  of  truth  that  might  otherwise 
have  escaped  sufficient  attention ;  or  to  consider  what  form 
most  fully  complies  with  the  one  rule  of  faith  which  all 
acknowledge.  The  Lutheran  Church,  however,  is  certainly 
what  it  is  because  it  has  rarely  lacked  the  courage  to 
frankly  say  that  it  heartily  believes  that  it  has  received  the 
form  of  Christian  life  which  it  possesses  from  the  quicken- 
ing power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  unerring  Word  of 
God. 

Nor  is  it  less  true  that  Lutheranism  itself  has  varieties. 
Distinctly  marked  as  is  its  individuality,  this  does  not  give 
to  all  its  adherents  precisely  the  same  caste.  As  experi- 
ence, environment,  education,  temperament,  and  personal 
gifts  differ,  the  one  form  of  Christian  life  manifests  itself 
in  various  ways.  Care  must  be  taken  not  to  confound 
national  peculiarities  with  those  of  the  religious  or  confes- 
sional life.  So  closely  associated  is  Lutheranism  with  Ger- 
many, its  birthplace  and  the  home  of  its  greatest  scholars 
and  preachers  and  hymn-writers  and  champions,  that  pe- 
culiarities of  German  Lutheranism  are  often  mistaken  for 
those  of  Lutheranism  itself.  This  is  not  only  because  Ger- 
man influences  have  powerfully  affected  Lutheranism,  but 
chiefly  because  Lutheranism  has  so  largely  made  Germany 
what  it  is.  It  has  contributed  as  much  to  the  formation  of 
the  national  character  as  it  has  to  the  language.  But  the 
national  characteristics  must  be  eliminated  from  Lutheran- 
ism if  the  latter  have  any  claim  to  stand  for  that  pure  gos- 


4  THE  LUTHERANS. 

pel  which  is  for  all  nations  and  all  tongues.  To  regard  the 
two  as  inseparable  is  to  deny  the  evangelical  character  of 
I.utheranism.  Even  in  Luther  himself  we  must  discrimi- 
nate between  that  which  belongs  to  him,  as  the  greatest  of 
all  Germans,  and  that  which  is  properly  the  expression  of 
his  faith. 

From  the  conception  of  Lutheranism  we  must  eliminate 
also  the  factors  of  temporal  limitation.  Each  century  has 
its  own  distinguishing  features  that  impress  themselves 
upon  all  its  forms  of  life.  The  Lutheranism  of  the  six- 
teenth century  is  to  be  revered  as  that  of  its  purest  period. 
To  succeeding  ages  of  the  Lutheran  faith  it  bears  the  same 
relation  that  the  Nicene  period  has  to  adherents  of  the 
Nicene  faith.  But  it  is  doing  Lutheranism  a  wrong  to 
maintain  that  its  development  was  completed  with  its  first 
beginnings,  and  that,  with  its  growth  arrested  and  its  life 
confined  within  the  molds  of  a  single  generation,  we  must 
now  be  content  to  do  nothing  but  reproduce  the  definitions 
of  that  age,  and  to  meet  the  issues  of  the  present  in  all 
respects  as  issues  were  then  met.  The  Christian  life  has 
its  peculiar  mission  in  every  age ;  and  so  Lutheranism,  true 
to  the  spirit  of  its  origin,  without  abating  aught  of  its  loy- 
alty to  the  past,  is  candid  enough  to  answer  the  questions 
agitated  in  each  age  in  the  language  of  that  age.  In  other 
words,  without  wavering  in  consistency  with  its  confession, 
if  it  be  a  true  expression  of  Christian  life,  it  possesses  adapt- 
ability to  every  circumstance  of  human  experience. 

Lutheranism  stands  for  that  effort  which  was  made  in 
the  sixteenth  century  to  maintain  and  continue  the  true 
historical  development  of  the  Christian  life,  as  opposed  to  a 
false  and  unhistorical  development  with  which  it  had  been 
confused  and  intermingled  in  the  church.  It  attempted 
no  innovations.  It  appealed  at  every  step  to  a  tradition 
whose  purity  was  to  be  decided  by  its  fidelity  to  the  spirit 


DOCIRINE.  5 

and  letter  of  God's  Word.  It  encouraged  no  revolution- 
ary movements.  It  was  in  no  haste  to  reach  an  ideal  end. 
Its  sole  aim  was  to  be  faithful  to  the  truth  and  to  the  hour. 
Conservative,  sober,  discriminating-,  it  tenaciously  adhered 
to  every  bequest  of  the  past  which  was  either  derived 
from  God's  Word  or  which  God's  Word  committed  to  the 
liberty  of  the  church.  It  refused  to  break  with  the  settled 
order  except  where  that  order  opposed  itself  to  the  gospel. 
It  was  unable  to  accept  or  identify  itself  with  the  more 
radical  movement  that  prevailed  in  what  is  known  as  the 
Reformed  family  of  churches,  because,  in  its  opinion,  their 
representatives  were  unwarranted  in  their  opposition  to 
features  in  the  old  church  that  were  not  condemned  in 
God's  Word,  and  which,  therefore,  instead  of  being  re- 
jected, were  to  be  retained.  It  offered  the  widest  and 
most  liberal  basis  for  Christian  union  by  restricting  the 
controversy  with  Rome  solely  to  those  points  in  which 
Rome's  departure  from  the  gospel  was  manifest.  It  sought 
to  separate  the  essential  from  the  non-essential,  and,  in  the 
sphere  of  love,  to  endure  all  things,  while,  in  the  sphere  of 
faith,  it  could  concede  nothing,  commending  w^hat  is  good 
no  less  because  found  in  an  adversary,  and  condemning 
what  is  wrong  no  less  because  found  in  a  friend. 

Lutheranism,  as  doctrine,  starts  w^ith  the  consciousness 
of  the  personal  intercourse  between  the  child  of  God  and 
his  reconciled  Father.  It  is  not  a  system,  drawn  by  logical 
deduction  from  exegetical  researches  into  the  Holy  Script- 
ures. It  is  the  development  of  the  spiritual  Hfe  in  this 
direction,  as  the  consciousness  of  the  relation  with  God  is 
analyzed  by  the  tests  of  Holy  Scripture,  and,  under  the 
guidance  of  Holy  Scripture,  is  brought  into  contact  with 
other  divine  realities,  concerning  which  it  must  make  con- 
fession. All  its  doctrines  are  its  conceptions  from  various 
sides   of  the   one   great   doctrine  of  justification  by  faith 


6  THE   LUrilERANS. 

alone.  The  vigor  of  its  contests  on  other  articles  is  expli- 
cable from  the  fact  that,  whatever  may  be  the  point  of 
attack,  it  regards  it  as  aimed  at  the  citadel  of  its  faith. 
Lutheranism  accepts  Augustinianism  on  original  sin;  for 
as  self  is  depreciated  Christ  is  exalted,  and  as  sin  is  excused 
or  explained  away  faith  in  Christ  is  rendered  needless. 
Christ  is  really  the  center  of  the  system;  for  justification 
by  faith  alone  means  nothing  more  than  justification  by 
Christ  alone,  through  faith  which  clings  to  Christ  as  its 
Saviour.  If  there  are  profound  mysteries  in  its  treatment 
of  Christology,  it  is  because  of  the  mystery  of  all  mys- 
teries in  the  person  of  its  Lord,  whom  it  worships  as  true 
God  and  true  man,  from  henceforth  and  forever  one  and  in- 
separable, and  whose  humanity  shares  in  the  infinite  glory 
and  majesty  of  his  divinity.  It  places  no  limitations  as  to 
the  extent  of  the  atonement,  teaching  that  it  was  made  not 
only  for  all  men,  but  also  for  all  sins ;  the  only  limitation 
being  that  of  the  enjoyment  of  the  benefits  of  the  atone- 
ment, when  some  for  whom  Christ  died  perish  through 
their  rejection  of  profi'ered  grace.  It  maintains  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  actually  works  through  the  means  of  grace,  as 
true  organs  and  instruments  whereby  the  benefits  of  re- 
demption are  offered  and,  if  not  repelled,  faith  is  bestowed. 
Faith  not  being  a  work  of  man,  but  of  God,  and  being  a 
state,  a  temper,  a  disposition,  an  attitude  of  heart  and  mind 
toward  God,  as  well  as  a  conscious  act,  Lutheranism  has 
never  found  it  difficult  to  regard  such  faith  as  bestowed 
already  in  infancy  through  the  Word  of  God  applied  in 
Holy  Baptism.  In  the  Holy  Supper  it  has  rigidly  held  to 
the  literal  interpretation  of  the  words  of  institution,  finding 
in  the  doctrine  of  the  real  presence  the  surest  pledge  of 
all  that  is  comprehended  in  redemption,  and  in  the  distri- 
bution of  the  heavenly  object  to  all  communicants  the  seal 
of  the  individualization  of  the  general  promise  of  the  gos- 


DOCTRINE.  7 

pel,  made  In  the  divinely  appointed  words  which  accompany 
the  distribution  and  declare  that,  so  far  as  God's  will  and 
purpose  are  concerned,  the  benefits  of  Christ's  death  belong 
to  every  one  partaking  of  the  consecrated  elements,  and 
that  which  they  convey.  Lutheranism  knows  of  no  priest- 
hood but  that  of  the  High-Priesthood  of  Christ,  who,  alone 
and  once  for  all,  made  a  propitiatory  sacrifice  for  us  on  the 
altar  of  the  cross,  and  the  spiritual  priesthood  of  all  believ- 
ers to  offer  the  daily  eucharistic  sacrifices  of  prayer,  praise, 
and  thanksgiving.  So  intimate  is  the  union  between  the 
Saviour  and  the  soul  whom  he  has  saved,  that  there  is  not 
room  between  them  for  any  order  of  men  to  conciliate  that 
favor,  of  which  the  redeemed  soul  already  enjoys  the  most 
indubitable  proofs.  Lutheranism,  however,  places  great 
stress  upon  the  church  as  a  divine  institution  to  administer 
the  Word  and  sacraments,  anci  the  ministry  as  the  church's 
instrumentality  through  which  she  performs  this  divinely 
appointed  duty.  Utterly  repudiating  the  conception  of  the 
ministry  as  a  priesthood,  Lutheranism,  however,  insists  that 
its  duties  do  not  pertain  to  all  believers,  but  only  to  those 
properly  called  and  set  apart  to  this  work  by  the  church's 
order.  Scrupulous  in  insisting  that  this  order  be  observed, 
Lutheranism,  at  the  same  time,  finds  the  efficacy  of  the 
ministry  not  in  the  regularity  of  the  call,  but  in  the  pure 
Word  which  they  bear,  which,  whether  or  not  their  call  be 
regular,  is  the  unfailing  organ  of  the  gracious  operation  of 
God's  Spirit.  Lutheranism  bows  with  implicit  confidence 
to  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  its  sole  rule  of  faith  and  prac- 
tice ;  and,  however  inexplicable  or  contradictory  its  state- 
ments may  seem  to  human  reason,  the  very  fact  that  they 
are  there  contained  is  to  it  an  end  of  all  controversy.  It 
regards  the  Scriptures  an  infallible  and  an  inerrant  guide 
for  all  the  purposes  for  which  God  has  given  us  a  revela- 
tion, and,  in  their  faithful  use,  humbly  expects,  by  the  en- 


8  THE   LUTHERANS. 

lightening  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  be  led  into  all 
truth. 

Holding  that  whatever  the  church  has  learned  from 
Holy  Scripture  she  is  bound  to  pubHcly  confess,  the  Lu- 
theran Church,  as  circumstances  demanded,  has  embodied 
these  doctrines  in  her  various  confessions.  While  it  can- 
not be  denied  that  false  zeal  in  maintaining  what  have 
been  regarded  Lutheran  principles  has  combined  with  the 
opposite  extreme  in  regarding  and  representing  the  church's 
confessions  as  absolute  law,  this  itself  is  entirely  foreign  to 
the  spirit  of  Lutheranism,  which  serves  God  v/ith  joyous 
freedom.  Bound  in  conscience  by  no  confession  of  faith, 
it  is  bound  to  confess  only  what  it  learns  from  God's  Word, 
and  thus  is  bound  to  declare  unmistakably  its  dissent  from 
any  confession  of  faith  which  fails  in  full  fidelity  to  God's 
Word.  The  moment  the  confession  becomes  a  law  it 
ceases  to  become  a  confession ;  the  moment  that  a  docu- 
ment becomes  a  confession  it  ceases  to  be  a  law.  These 
historical  documents  are  confessions  only  when,  in  their 
historical  sense,  they  correctly  express  the  judgment  of  in- 
dividuals or  churches  concerning  doctrines  of  God's  Word, 
The  confession  stands  or  falls  according  to  its  degree  of 
conformity  with  Holy  Scripture.  While  it  is  undoubtedly 
true  that  the  confession  is  often  greater  and  better  than 
the  faith,  it  is  also  true  that  the  faith  is  sometimes  greater 
and  better  than  its  confession,  and  that  the  confession  fails 
to  adequately  express  the  form  of  Christian  life  for  which 
it  stands.  All  these  principles  will  enter  more  or  less  inti- 
mately into  the  estimate  which  will  be  placed  upon  the 
various  historical  factors  to  be  presented  in  this  survey. 
LutheranLsm  is  a  clear,  distinct,  definite  form  of  Christian 
life,  whose  relations  to  other  forms  of  Christian  life  are 
traced  in  the  theological  science  of  comparative  symbolics. 
It  is  neither  the   formal    subscription  to  minute  codes  of 


CHURCH  LIFE.  9 

definitions  and  compliance  with  long-established  prece- 
dents ;  nor  is  it,  on  the  other  hand,  a  vague  and  indefinite 
spirit  which  assumes  new  shapes  according  to  the  fashion 
of  the  hour,  and  changes  its  confession  by  the  decisions  of 
majorities. 

The  form  of  the  Christian  life  which  the  Lutheran 
Church  cherishes  is  preeminently  irenic.  The  bitter  con- 
troversies that  have  raged  within  her  are  only  incidents  in 
her  history  that  are  all  the  more  marked  as  they  are  excep- 
tions to  the  general  course  of  her  development.  But  her 
very  love  for  peace  has  rendered  her  cautious  about  any 
false  peace.  She  is  candid,  honest,  outspoken ;  she  has 
always  felt  that  she  dare  not  allow  the  clearness  of  her 
testimony  to  be  in  any  way  clouded  or  compromised.  She 
has  ever  realized  her  divine  commission  to  testify  to  all 
things  concerning  which  her  Lord  has  given  command- 
ment, and  she  will  not,  even  for  the  sake  of  the  peace  she 
so  much  loves,  be  silent.  The  Lutheran  Church,  however, 
is  not  responsible  for  the  acrimony  and  violence  that  have 
often  been  displayed  by  those  w^ho  claim  to  be  her  parti- 
sans. Many  a  faithful  teacher  has  diminished  his  influence 
by  allowing  a  spirit  that  is  not  of  Christ  or  the  gospel  to 
be  intermingled  with  his  clear  teaching  and  perfectly  just 
censures.  The  Lutheran  Church  must  not  be  held  respon- 
sible, any  more  than  Christianity  itself,  for  the  incidental 
ardor  and  violence  of  writers,  forming  a  strange  contrast  to 
the  prevalent  preaching  from  her  pulpits,  and  the  humble, 
quiet,  sincere  lives  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  her  people, 
who,  in  all  meekness,  are  slow  to  give  their  confidence  to 
those  whom  they  do  not  know,  but  who,  at  the  same  time, 
cordially  love  and  submissively  obey  and  considerately 
care  for  all  that  has  once  established  itself  as  worthy  of 
esteem.  The  battlefields  of  a  nation,  while  a  very  promi- 
nent, are,  after  all,  only  a  very  small  part  of  its  history. 


10  THE  LUTHERANS. 

We  must  learn  to  know  a  church  not  simply  by  the  study 
of  its  controversies  and  of  the  lives  of  its  disputants,  but 
especially  in  the  Christian  life  as  it  has  developed  among 
the  people  in  the  administration  of  the  means  of  grace.  It 
is  unhistorical  to  reach  conclusions  by  the  study  of  the 
polemical  literature,  while  neglecting  the  hymns  and 
prayers,  the  liturgies,  the  devotional  works,  the  sermons, 
and  the  biographies  of  godly  men  and  women  of  the  same 
period.  It  is  unfair  to  consider  the  faith  of  a  communion 
simply  as  it  is  engaged  in  a  struggle  with  those  who  mis- 
state and  confuse  it,  and  not  to  consider  the  same  faith  as 
in  every- day  life  it  bears  the  cross  and  meets  those  trials 
from  which  no  Christian  is  exempt,  or  as  it  leads  to  earnest 
efforts  in  the  various  spheres  of  benevolent  work. 

Faith  expresses  itself,  on  one  side,  as  doctrine ;  on  an- 
other, as  worship ;  on  another,  as  patience ;  on  another,  as 
work.  The  same  conservative  position  that  is  noted  in 
the  doctrine  of  the  Lutheran  Church  characterizes  it  in  all 
other  spheres.  It  accepts  all  that  has  gone  before  in  the 
church's  history,  casting  out  only  that  which  is  contrary 
to  Holy  Scripture.  It  is  constantly  seeking  development, 
but  only  upon  the  basis  of  what  has  preceded  ;  for  it  knows 
too  well  that  this  is  the  law  of  all  true  progress.  Clearly 
recognizing  the  hand  of  Providence  in  all  the  events  of 
human  history,  and  assured  of  an  especial  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  the  life  of  the  church,  it  calmly  submits  to 
whatever  outward  lot  God  appoints  it,  until  the  clear  call 
come  for  an  advance.  In  external  matters,  the  great  vari- 
ety that  has  attended  it  is  due,  in  large  measure,  to  the 
varying  degree  of  interference  with  the  church's  true  de- 
velopment, by  either  the  Roman  hierarchy  or  the  state,  in 
the  various  countries  of  its  original  home.  To  the  outward 
order  it  ever  continued  to  cling,  until  that  order  was  turned 
against  the  gospel. 


THE    CHURCH  SERVICE.  II 

In  public  worship  it  carefully  guards  the  rights  of  the 
spiritual  priesthood  of  believers,  of  whom,  in  all  prayers, 
the  minister  speaks  only  as  the  representative,  leading  the 
devotions  of  the  congregation.  The  guardianship  of  this 
right  implies  not  only  the  rejection  of  all  the  hierarchical 
assumptions  of  an  order  who  pray  for  the  people  in  an  un- 
known tongue,  but  also  an  avoidance  of  all  that  is  purely 
subjective  and  individual  in  public  prayer,  in  order  that  it 
may  be  the  ''  common  prayer  "  of  the  entire  body  of  wor- 
shipers, expressing,  in  language  in  which  all  can  join,  the 
common  wants  of  the  spiritual  priesthood  who  participate. 
The  center  of  all  its  worship  is  the  Word  of  God.  This 
Word  is  preached,  not  only  in  the  sermon,  but  in  the  entire 
arrangement  of  the  service,  where  the  Word  of  God,  in 
various  forms,  and.  with  a  due  proportion  of  law  and  gos- 
pel, is  successively  proclaimed.  It  centers  around  the 
exhibition  of  all  that  Christ  has  done  for,  and  is  and  will 
be  to,  the  behever.  Hence  the  carefully  chosen  system 
of  lessons,  embodied  in  the  church  year,  which,  in  the 
Lutheran  Church,  even  more  exclusively  than  in  the  other 
historical  communions  that  follow  it,  forms  the  main  basis 
of  the  preaching,  but  which  her  great  preachers  know  how 
to  apply  with  great  freedom  and  surprising  variety  to  the 
constantly  changing  circumstances  of  time  and  place.  The 
public  service  culminates  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  with  its 
most  direct  personal  application  of  the  general  promise  of 
the  gospel  under  the  seals  of  the  very  Body  and  Blood 
that  have  paid  the  price  of  redemption — the  preaching  of 
the  Word  in  its  most  impressive  form.  Believing  that  for 
a  profitable  partaking  of  the  Holy  Supper  due  preparation 
is  needed,  previous  announcement  is  made,  in  order  that, 
by  self-examination  and  special  prayer,  the  heart  be  made 
ready  to  receive  the  more  ardently  the  gospel  assurance ; 
and  a  special  exercise  is  appointed — in  the  earlier  periods 


12  THE   LUTHERANS. 

of  the  Lutheran  Church,  and  to  a  less  extent  even  to  the 
present,  a  private  confession,  and  more  frequently,  in  later 
times,  a  public  confession  or  preparatory  service — which  all 
who  purpose  to  commune  are  expected  to  attend,  and  to 
make  answer  therein  to  solemn  questions  concerning  their 
repentance  and  faith.  Although  regarding  baptism  as  the 
only  ordinance  whereby  persons  enter  the  church,  admis- 
sion to  the  Lord's  Supper  is  preceded  by  the  rite  of  con- 
firmation, which,  after  having  fallen  into  disuse  for  many 
years,  was  reintroduced  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
has  now  become  universal,  as  the  church's  declaration  of 
the  fitness  of  the  persons  confirmed  for  admission  to  the 
Holy  Supper.  It  is  preceded  by  careful  instruction  by  the 
pastor  in  the  catechism,  extending  over  one  year  or  more, 
supplementing  what  should  be  given  in  the  family  and  the 
school. 

Upon  the  church  school  the  Lutheran  Church  has  ever 
laid  the  greatest  importance.  In  its  various  homes  in 
Europe  it  has  always  had  the  especial  supervision  of  all 
elementary  instruction,  which  it  has  conducted  upon  the 
principle  that  the  religious  training  is  the  center  of  all  edu- 
cation. The  catechism,  Bible  history,  the  committing  to 
memory  of  copious  Scripture  texts  and  of  the  best  hymns 
of  the  church,  and  church  music,  are  prominent  features 
of  the  every-day  instruction.  It  is  a  system  which  pro- 
duces intelligent  and  earnest  Christian  laymen,  and  devout 
and  capable  Christian  wives  and  mothers,  who  are  not 
readily  led  astray,  even  if  rationalism  should  dominate  in 
the  theological  training  in  the  universities,  where  the  con- 
ditions of  America  are  reversed,  and  the  ecclesiastical 
influence  disappears  as  the  religious  training  passes  from 
its  elementary  to  its  scientific  form. 

The  organization  of. the  church  has  been  determined  by 
the  same  controlling  spirit  of  conservatism  that  has  pre- 


CHURCH  GOVERNMENT.  I  3 

vailed  in  other  spheres.  Where  the  bishops  espoused  the 
Lutheran  faith  and  effected  reforms  according  to  it,  as  seen 
especially  in  Sweden,  there  was  no  change  in  the  form  of 
organization.  Where  they  opposed  it,  and  refused  ordina- 
tion to  those  faithful  to  what  the  Lutheran  Church  teaches 
to  be  the  gospel,  the  congregations  had  to  resort  to  their 
own  inherent  authority  to  provide  for  the  pure  administra- 
tion of  the  Word,  and  ordain  men  independently  of  the 
bishops.  This  was  not  done  in  haste  or  until  repeated 
protests  had  proved  fruitless.  Even  when  done,  it  was 
with  the  hope  that  the  change  was  only  a  temporary  expe- 
dient, fully  justified  by  the  necessities,  but  that,  with  the 
recognition  of  their  reasonable  claims,  the  old  order  of  the 
church  would  be  reformed  and  restored.  Until  then,  in 
most  countries,  the  powers  of  the  bishops  devolved  upon 
the  rulers,  not  for  the  purpose  of  transferring  spiritual 
rights  to  the  temporal  authorities,  but,  with  a  clear  separa- 
tion of  the  two  functions,  transferring  to  them,  as  promi- 
nent members  of  the  church,  the  general  superintendence 
of  its  interests  and  provision  for  its  administration,  until 
either  the  regular  bishops  would  yield  to  the  demands  of 
the  reformers,  or  the  time  for  a  thorough  reorganization 
would  come.  Under  the  direction  of  such  rulers,  a  num- 
ber of  whom  proved  themselves  to  be  faithful  and  truly 
spiritually  minded  men,  there  was  a  readjustment  of  the 
church's  work  and  administration  in  the  various  Lutheran 
countries,  the  Wittenberg  Faculty  (Luther,  Melanchthon, 
Jonas,  Bugenhagen,  etc.)  and  several  of  their  intimate  asso- 
ciates (Brentz,  Sarcerius,  etc.)  being  especially  active  in 
composing,  revising,  and  editing  church  constitutions,  and 
in  answering  the  many  appeals  for  advice  that  were  ad- 
dressed them. 

This  form  of  church  government,  known  as  the  episco- 
pal, giving  to  the  ruler  the  administration,   but  commit- 


14  THE   LUTHERANS. 

ting  the  decision  of  all  doctrinal  questions  to  the  minis- 
try, was  the  prevalent  one  in  Germany  until  the  close  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  It  was  succeeded  by  the  ter- 
ritorial system,  which,  emphasizing  the  invisibility  of  the 
true  church,  intrusted  the  determination  of  even  questions 
affecting  the  doctrine  into  the  hands  of  the  ruler,  since  the 
external  church  was  regarded  only  as  a  human  society, 
which,  like  other  human  societies,  should  be  maintained 
and  defended  by  the  civil  government.  The  collegial  sys- 
tem followed,  asserting  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  and 
claiming  the  absolute  independence  of  every  congregation 
in  the  determination  of  all  its  affairs.  Under  all  these 
systems,  the  practical  determination  of  all  questions  was  in 
the  hands  of  a  consistorium  appointed  by  the  ruler,  con- 
sisting of  theologians  and  jurists,  and  acting  through  super- 
intendents, who,  either  themselves  or  through  appointed 
visitors,  closely  inspected  the  congregations,  pastors,  can- 
didates, schools,  and  institutions  of  mercy.  In  some  coun- 
tries, where  the  Lutheran  has  come  into  close  contact  with 
the  Reformed  Church,  it  has  received  considerable  modi- 
fication of  its  organization.  The  synodical  form  of  organi- 
zation, universally  prevalent  in  the  Lutheran  Church  of 
America,  is,  in  large  measure,  derived  from  the  Reformed 
Church,  the  Lutheran  synodical  organizations  of  the  Refor- 
mation period,  of  which  that  in  Pomerania  may  be  regarded 
the  type,  being  of  an  entirely  different  character,  as  meet- 
ings for  receiving  instructions  from  the  superintendents, 
rather  than  for  the  decision  of  church  questions.  We  be- 
lieve that  it  can  be  very  safely  affirmed  that  nowhere,  as 
in  this  country,  does  the  Lutheran  Church  have  the  oppor- 
tunity to  shape  its  church  polity  in  accordance  with  its 
principles.  The  temporary  scheme  in  Germany  of  regard- 
ing the  rulers  as  bishops  may  have  been  necessary  under 
the  circumstances ;  but  it  certainly  caused  great  embarrass- 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE.  I  5 

ments,  and  often  led  to  a  practical  denial  of  Lutheran  prin- 
ciples, and  even  to  their  flagrant  violation. 

The  prevalent  character  of  the  Christian  life  nourished 
by  the  Lutheran  faith  is  humble,  devout,  unobtrusive,  joy- 
ous, buoyant.  The  clear  apprehension  of  the  doctrine  of 
justification,  which  the  Lutheran  Church  makes  the  most 
prominent  part  of  her  teaching,  when  received  in  its  full- 
ness imparts  the  joyful  consciousness  of  the  forgiveness  of 
all  sins  and  of  the  entire  favor  and  presence  of  God.  The 
anxiety  and  gloom  that  characterize  some  other  forms  of 
Christianity,  and  oppress  many  true  Christians  who  have 
only  imperfectly  received  the  comfort  of  the  gospel,  are 
entirely  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  Lutheranism.  Sadness  and 
sorrow,  the  Lutheran  Church  believes,  belong  to  the  realm 
of  sin  and  death,  not  of  life  and  salvation  and  holiness. 
Asceticism,  if  not  pure  legalism,  is  regarded  as,  at  best, 
only  a  diseased  form  of  Christianity  that  denies  to  God  the 
full  credit  for  blessings  which  he  has  given  man  to  enjoy. 
All  good  things  of  this  life  that  come  according  to  God's 
calling  and  in  his  order  are  gratefully  received  and  cheer- 
fully used,  in  order  that  God  may  be  glorified  in  the  Chris- 
tian's enjoyment  of  temporal  as  well  as  of  spiritual  things. 
This  in  no  way  diminishes  the  clearness  of  its  testimony 
against  the  abuse  of  earthly  objects  and  the  absorption  of 
the  heart  in  worldliness.  In  all  its  use  of  worldly  things, 
it  is  never  forgetful  of  Him  whence  they  come,  and  at 
whose  command  they  can  be  just  as  readily  renounced  as 
they  were  previously  received.  These  features  are  espe- 
cially seen  in  the  family,  where  there  is  the  combination 
of  strict  discipline  with  the  most  unreserved  confidence 
between  parents  and  children,  and  of  a  deep  religious  life 
with  a  cheerfulness  that  is  always  diffusing  its  brightness. 
Sunday,  instead  of  being  observed  by  penitential  exercises, 
is  the  most  joyful  day  of  the  week.     The  religious  services 


1 6  THE   LUTHERANS. 

throughout  reflect  this  joyful  character.  Next  to  the  pub- 
he  service  of  God,  the  day  is  sacred  to  the  cultivation  of 
the  life  of  the  Christian  family.  Such  statements  neces- 
sarily require  discrimination.  They  are  written  with  full 
knowledge  of  the  fact  that  liberty  sometimes  runs  into 
license,  that  the  claims  of  God  are  ignored,  and  that  a  joy 
which  does  not  come  from  the  Holy  Spirit  sometimes 
boasts  of  Luther's  name  and  of  the  precedent  of  Luther's 
example.  But  for  this  perversion  the  Lutheran  Church 
cannot  be  held  culpable. 

If  we  cannot  say  that  the  Lutheran  Church  has  faith- 
fully entered  every  door  of  usefulness  that  has  opened  to 
her,  a  review  of  her  history  does  not  show  that  she  has 
been  inactive.  It  is  sometimes  charged  against  her  that 
while  numerically  so  strong,  it  is  strange  that  she  allowed 
the  Reformed  family  of  churches  to  so  far  outstrip  her  in 
the  work  of  foreign  missions.  But  it  does  not  require  a 
very  close  consideration  of  the  facts  before  the  reasons 
become  obvious.  The  Reformation  itself  was  a  missionary 
movement,  and  taxed  to  the  utmost  her  energies.  The 
great  question  of  that  hour  was  the  reorganization  of  the 
church,  in  such  a  way  that  her  testimony  to  Christ  might 
be  most  clearly  heard,  and  those  agonizing  for  salvation 
according  to  a  false  presentation  of  the  way  of  life,  find 
peace  for  their  souls.  The  worship  of  the  church  required 
purification,  and  that  a  large  literature  of  liturgies  and 
hymn-books  and  catechisms,  and  even  translations  of  the 
Bible,  be  provided.  The  vastness  of  the  work  accom- 
plished by  that  generation  is  truly  astonishing.  It  had 
not  passed  away  before  the  storm  of  the  Smalcald  War 
broke  upon  the  center  of  Lutheranism  and  desolated  it, 
while  the  Reformed  churches  were  spared  for  a  time.  The 
controversies  largely  occasioned  by  her  weakened  external 
circumstances  drained  for  years  her  energies  and  confused 


MISSIONS.  1 7 

her  people.  Then  came,  the  desolations  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War.  But  these  are  only  partial  explanations.  The 
same  external  call  did  not  come  to  the  Lutheran  as  to 
the  Reformed  churches.  The  Reformed  churches  were  led 
into  the  work  of  foreign  missions  as  nations  which  had 
the  Reformed  faith  made  conquests  in  heathen  countries. 
Where,  to  a  far  less  extent,  Lutheran  nations  had  foreign 
colonies  or  possessions,  the  Lutheran  Church  also  entered 
the  field.  The  labors  of  Westen  among  the  Lapps,  of 
Egede  among  the  Greenlanders,  and  of  Ziegenbalg  and 
his  associates  from  Halle  during  the  Danish  sway  in  India, 
as  well  as  of  Campanius  among  the  Delaware  Indians,  are 
among  the  earliest  and  the  most  interesting  chapters  in  the 
history  of  Protestant  foreign  missions.  In  later  years,  as 
opportunity  is  given  she  has  not  hesitated  to  respond 
promptly  to  the  calls  made,  as  her  various  missions  in 
India,  Africa,  and  Oceanica  testify.  The  development  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  America  is  a  record  of  most  remarka- 
ble home  mission  work,  which,  with  an  insignificant  amount 
of  resources,  has,  in  a  very  quiet  and  unobtrusive  way, 
collected  impoverished  immigrants  into  a  vast  community, 
brought  them  into  powerful  church  organizations,  built  for 
them  substantial  and,  in  many  places,  elegant  churches, 
provided  for  them  well-equipped  institutions  of  learning, 
and  founded  numerous  hospitals,  orphanages,  deaconesses' 
institutes,  and  other  works  of  mercy.  It  is  the  object  of 
this  book  to  enter  into  the  details  of  this  history. 


PERIOD  I. 

THE  SOURCES  AND  ORIGINATION  OF  THE 
LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA. 

A.D.    1 624- 1 742. 


19 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  HOLLAND. 

The  Lutheran  Church  was  not  transplanted  to  America 
as  a  homogeneous  and  thoroughly  organized  body.  The 
task  before  most  other  religious  communities  which  have 
found  a  home  here  has  been  far  less  difficult.  With  the 
Lutheran  Church,  uniformity  of  worship  and  of  govern- 
ment has  always  been  a  secondary  consideration,  all  stress 
having  been  placed  upon  unity  in  the  faith.  But  in  organ- 
izing those  who  hold  the  same  faith  into  a  body  for  mutual 
protection  and  edification,  the  uniformity  of  worship  and 
government,  however  subordinate,  is  nevertheless  a  very 
important  factor.  The  regulations  of  the  Roman  Catholic, 
the  Protestant  Episcopal,  and  the  Presbyterian  churches 
were  to  a  grreat  extent  fixed  at  their  entrance  into  Amer- 
ica.  Other  church  organizations,  having  a  somewhat  freer 
development  than  the  communions  just  named,  were  never- 
theless unembarrassed  by  the  conflicting  European  orders 
to  which  their  founders  were  accustomed.  The  Lutheran 
Church  of  America  comes,  however,  from  various  nation- 
aUties.  Even  within  the  same  nationality,  the  multiplicity 
of  small  states  into  which  Germany  was  divided  gave  to 
each  its  own  separate  church  constitution  and  pecuHar 
church  regulations.  The  work  of  developing  a  Lutheran 
Church,  one  in  faith  and  thoroughly  united  in  gpvernment 
as  well  as  in  doctrine,  has  been  gradually  progressing  with- 
out any  special  effort  on  the  part  of  men,  but  under  the 
constraint  of  the  necessities  of  the  Christian  Hfe,  i.e.,  by 


22  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  i. 

the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  and  with  the  church. 
To  understand,  therefore,  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America 
and  its  entire  development,  we  must,  with  considerable  care 
and  at  some  length,  examine  the  history  and  church  con- 
stitution of  the  various  elements  which  form  this  composite 
body. 

The  pioneers  of  Lutheranism  in  America  came  from 
Holland.  The  Lutheran  Church  of  Holland  when  consid- 
ered in  itself  has  never  been  of  any  great  importance  or 
influence.  Even  to  the  present  day,  it  is  without  any  work 
professing  to  give  its  history.  It  has  no  church  paper  or 
theological  review,  a  small  mission  paper  representing  its 
entire  contribution  to  periodical  literature.  For  over  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  it  had  no  theological  seminary, 
and  was  satisfied  with  educating  generations  of  pastors  in 
Germany,  and  importing  ministers  from  that  country.  The 
element  which  it  contributed  toward  Lutheranism  in  Amer- 
ica was  small  in  numbers,  and  made  no  very  great  progress. 
Their  descendants  have  formed  the  basis  only  of  a  few  con- 
gregations in  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  and  while  some 
of  their  prominent  names  survive  among  our  laity,  there  is 
scarcely  one  in  our  ministry.  Nevertheless,  they  have  left 
their  permanent  impress  upon  the  entire  form  of  the  con- 
gregational and  synodical  organization  of  the  greater  part 
of  the  present  church.  Not  only  were  the  German  Lu- 
theran churches  of  London,  with  which  Muhlenberg  stood 
in  close  connection,  greatly  influenced  by  their  frequent 
communications  with  Amsterdam,  but  we  know  how  Muhl- 
enberg's temporary  pastorate  of  the  Dutch  Church  in  New 
York  City  was  followed  by  results  in  the  more  complete 
organization  of  congregations  that  can  be  traced  in  a  large 
portion  of  the  present  constitutions.  It  is  necessary,  there- 
fore, to  devote  some  attention  to  the  history,  character- 
istics, and  organization  of  Dutch  Lutheranism. 


THE  FIRST  REFORMERS.  23 

Luther's  reformatory  movements  had  found  immediate 
sympathy  in  the  Netherlands.  Phihp,  Bishop  of  Utrecht, 
had  prepared  the  way  by  his  reproofs  of  the  clergy,  his 
denunciations  of  the  monks,  and  the  urgency  with  which 
he  demanded  a  more  faithful  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
Erasmus,  of  Rotterdam,  was  no  less  important  in  his  own 
native  land  than  in  England.  Gansfort,  Vesalius,  and 
Groete  were  also  forerunners.  As  in  England,  Robert 
Barnes,  the  prior  of  the  Augustinian  monks,  so  in  Holland, 
Jacob  Spreng  or  Sprenger,  commonly  known  as  Probst,  of 
the  same  Augustinian  order,  who  had  been  a  pupil  of 
Luther  at  Wittenberg,  and  had  been  admitted  to  Luther's 
most  intimate  friendship,  which  was  subsequently  strength- 
ened by  his  marriage  to  a  near  relative  of  Luther,  was 
especially  prominent  as  an  advocate  of  Luther's  teachings. 
Compelled,  by  a  singular  parallel  to  the  experience  of  his 
brother  Augustinian  in  England,  to  make  a  public  recanta- 
tion, after  repenting  of  his  temporary  vacillation  and  fleeing 
from  Holland  he  lived  and  labored  long  in  the  cause  of 
the  Lutheran  Reformation  in  Bremen.  Henry  Moller  von 
Ziitphen  was  another  prior  of  the  Augustinians,  who  studied 
at  Wittenberg,  diffused  the  doctrines  he  there  learned,  first 
at  Dort  and  afterward  at  Antwerp,  and  ultimately  attested 
his  devotion  by  martyrdom,  December  1 1,  1524.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  read  the  letters  of  Erasmus,  of  15  18  and  15  19, 
to  learn  how  the  truth  was  spreading  in  the  Netherlands. 
The  attack  of  the  doctors  of  Louvain,  November  7,  15  19, 
is  accompanied  by  the  apology  that  the  number  of  Luther's 
advocates  must  explain  its  necessity.  Of  these  Louvain 
doctors  it  is  said  that  they  had  appealed  to  Margaret,  the 
sister  of  Charles  V.,  with  the  complaint  that,  by  his  writ- 
ings, Luther  was  subverting  all  Christianity.  "And  who 
is  Luther?"  she  naively  asked.  **An  unlearned  man." 
"  Well,  then,"  she  repHed,  *'  I  think  there  are  enough  of 


24  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  i. 

you  to  take  care  of  him,  since  one  unlearned  man  cannot, 
before  the  world,  overcome  the  many  learned  who  are  ar- 
rayed against  him."  In  1521  the  series  of  persecutions 
began  that  were  destined  to  furnish  from  the  Netherlands 
more  martyrs  than  the  entire  early  church  contributed 
during  the  period  of  its  establishment.  In  1522  a  special 
officer  was  appointed  to  search  for  Luther's  writings.  At 
Brussels,  July  i,  1523,  the  Augustinians  Henry  Voes  and 
John  Esch  received  the  martyr's  crown.  These  first  mar- 
tyrs of  Lutheranism,  when  fastened  to  the  stake,  repeated 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  then,  until  suffocated  by  the 
flames,  chanted  responsively  the  Te  Dcuni  landauius.  In- 
stead of  striking  the  Lutherans  with  dismay,  this  martyr- 
dom only  inspired  them  with  new  courage.  A  shout  of 
triumph  arose  from  their  leader,  exultant  at  the  grace 
which  God  had  given  feeble  men  in  the  hour  of  their  trial. 
Luther  writes : 

To  all  the  clear  brethren  in  Christ  who  are  in  Holland,  Brabant,  and 
Flanders,  together  with  all  believers  in  Christ  Jesus  :  To  you  it  is  given, 
before  all  the  world,  not  only  to  hear  the  gospel  and  to  learn  of  Christ,  but 
also  to  be  the  first,  for  Christ's  sake,  to  suffer  shame  and  loss,  pain  and 
anguish,  imprisonment  and  danger,  and  to  be  now  so  strong  and  fruitful  as 
to  have  sprinkled  and  confirmed  your  testimony  with  your  own  blood ;  since 
the  two  precious  jewels  of  Christ,  Henry  and  John,  at  Brussels,  counted 
their  lives  of  no  account,  in  order  that  Christ  might  be  glorified.  What  a 
trifling  thing  it  is  for  those  whose  death  is  precious  in  God's  sight  to  be 
dishonored  and  slain  by  the  world! 

Lutheranism  spread  as  it  was  persecuted.  Repeated 
edicts,  and  the  threat  of  the  emperor  that  he  would  ''  be 
an  enemy  to  his  own  father,  mother,  brother,  or  sister,  if 
any  one  of  them  became  Lutheran,"  were  powerless  to 
check  its  progress.  The  evangelical  cause  was  strength- 
ened in  1524  and  1525  by  the  presence  in  the  Netherlands 
of  Christian  II.  of  Denmark,  whose  queen,  Isabella,  the 
sister   of  the   emperor,   had,  in   direct    opposition    to   her 


LUTHERAN  CONFESSORS.  25 

brother's  threats,  become  a  warm  advocate  of  Luther's 
•cause.  In  1525  another  confessor  of  the  faith  was  burned 
at  the  stake,  John  Bekker,  or  Pistorius,  of  Woerden,  a  form- 
er Wittenberg  student.  The  same  year  Erasmus  testi- 
fies :  "  The  greater  part  of  the  people  in  Holland,  Zealand, 
and  Flanders  know  the  doctrine  of  Luther,  and  are  excited 
with  more  than  deadly  hatred  toward  the  monks."  As 
often  happens,  persecution  on  the  one  side  led  to  extremes 
on  the  other.  To  many  Lutheranism  was  not  sufficiently 
aggressive.  The  excesses  of  Anabaptism  broke  through 
the  restraints,  beginning  with  1525.  Anabaptism  was  a 
more  effective  check  to  the  progress  of  Lutheranism  than 
either  sword  or  stake.  Its  crimes  were  placed  to  the 
charge  of  the  revived  gospel.  Thus,  in  1534,  the  Coun- 
cil of  Deventer  bound  themselv^es  by  an  oath  to  aid  the 
suppression  of  Lutheranism,  *'  the  mother  of  Anabaptism." 
While  separate  Lutheran  congregations  began  to  be  formed, 
according  to  V.  E.  Loscher,  as  early  as  1528  at  Utrecht, 
nevertheless  for  a  long  time  Lutheranism  was  the  name  of 
a  powerful  tendency,  before  it  began  to  organize  congrega- 
tions. At  Antwerp  the  Augustinians  were  especially  in- 
fluential, and  furnished  able  preachers.  Although  Luther- 
anism was  under  the  ban  even  there,  refugees  fled  thither 
from  other  quarters,  where  the  proscription  was  more  vigor- 
ously executed.  From  an  Antwerp  press  an  edition  of 
Tyndale's  English  New  Testament  had  appeared  in  1527. 
In  1528  Barnes,  driven  from  England,  was  there.  Tyn- 
dale's residence  at  Antwerp,  and  his  imprisonment  and 
execution  at  Vilvorde,  twenty  miles  from  Antwerp,  Octo- 
ber 6,  1536,  are  well  known.  John  Rogers,  while  at  Ant- 
werp as  an  English  chaplain,  was  won  over  to  Lutheranism, 
and,  with  his  Dutch  wife,  repaired  to  Wittenberg.  The 
name  of  John  of  Amsterdam,  appended  to  the  Smalcald 
Articles  of  1535,  is  that  of  John  Timann,  another  former 


26  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  i. 

Wittenberg  student,  who  had  found  a  freer  field  for  the 
exercise  of  his  distinguished  gifts,  as  a  preacher  in  St. 
Martin's  Church,  Bremen.  Amsterdam,  as  a  commercial 
center,  was  in  constant  intercourse  with  other  parts  of 
Europe,  especially  northern  Germany  and  England,  and 
could  not  remain  isolated  from  the  religious  movements 
that  were  agitating  the  countries  closely  connected  with  its 
mercantile  enterprises.  In  1531  there  were  both  Luther- 
ans and  Reformed  among  its  citizens. 

Gradually  Calvinism  gained  the  ascendancy  over  Luther- 
anism  in  the  Netherlands.  The  organization  of  the  adher- 
ents of  the  Reformed  faith  into  separate  congregations  had 
been  delayed  until  the  sad  period  in  the  history  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  when  in  Germany,  its  center,  it  was  op- 
pressed by  the  calamities  of  the  Smalcald  War,  and  weak- 
ened by  serious  and  far-reaching  internal  dissensions.  The 
same  influences  that  lost  England  to  the  Lutheran  Church 
lost  for  it  Holland.  The  persecutions,  as  they  increased  in 
violence,  drove  many  of  the  Dutch  into  places  where  Cal- 
vinism had  obtained  a  firm  hold,  and  they  returned  from 
their  exile  warm  advocates  of  the  faith  they  had  learned 
abroad.  Men  under  the  sting  of  great  wrongs  preferred  a 
more  radical  antagonism  to  Rome  than  they  thought  could 
be  found  in  Lutheranism.  Account  must  also  be  taken 
for  linguistic  affinities.  Brandt,  in  his  **  Hi^ory  of  the 
Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries,"^  says:  ''"The  reason 
why  they  did  not  follow  the  Confession  of  Augsburg  was 
chiefly  the  neighborhood  and  affinity  of  language  between 
the  Walloons  and  the  French,  and  the  agreement  of  that 
of  the  Flemings  and  the  Brabantes  with  the  Walloon 
speech."  Neither  was  the  fact  that  William  of  Orange 
was  a  son-in-law  of  Admiral  Coligni  without  its  signifi- 

1  Vol.  i.,  p.  142. 


RELATIONS    TO    THE  REFORMED.  27 

cance.  The  ascendancy  was  not  gained  without  a  conflict, 
which  we  will  find  transferred  a  century  later  to  America. 
But  from  the  time  of  the  General  Synod  in  Antwerp  in 
1565,  and  the  failure  in  1567  of  the  commission  of  eminent 
Lutherans  sent  from  Germany,  headed  by  Flacius  and 
Spangenberg,  to  conciliate  the  Reformed,  the  separation  of 
the  interests  of  the  two  confessions  and  the  very  decided 
minority  of  the  Lutherans  were  inevitable.  The  Belgic 
Confession  of  1561  had  become  the  formal  protest  of  the 
Reformed  Church  of  the  Netherlands,  not  only  against 
Rome,  but  also  against  the  Augsburg  Confession.  The 
Heidelberg  Catechism  was  ordered,  in  1574,  to  be  taught 
in  all  churches.  In  1572  Holland  and  Zealand  had  adopted 
Calvinism.  In  1583  it  had  prevailed  in  all  the  United 
Provinces. 

The  first  Lutheran  congregation  organized  with  the 
recognition  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  as  its  basis  is  that 
of  Woerden,  dating  from  1566.  In  1567  a  Lutheran  church 
was  under  roof  at  Antwerp,  and  elders  had  been  appointed.^ 
At  the  very  time  when  the  Duke  of  Alva  was  proceed- 
ing to  execute  the  purpose  of  Philip  II.  to  exterminate  all 
Protestants  in  the  Netherlands,  there  was  anything  but  a 
cordial  feeling  between  the  Lutherans  and  the  Reformed. 
In  their  relations  with  the  magistrates,  the  Lutherans  in- 
sisted upon  a  moderate  course.  They  submitted  to  any 
restrictions,  provided  only  they  were  allowed  the  free  exer- 
cise of  their  religion.  In  return,  they  obtained  privileges 
'which  were  denied  the  Reformed,  as,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  magistrates,  more  turbulent  and  violent.  It  has  been 
repeatedly  suggested  that  the  magistrates  favored  the 
Lutherans  in  order  to  provoke  jealousy  between  the  two 
Protestant  parties,  and  to  render  any  reconciliation  less 

1  Preger's  "  Matthias  Flacius  Illyricus,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  287. 


28  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  i. 

difficult.  "The  Lutherans,"  says  the  Remonstrant  histo- 
rian Brandt,  quoting  from  the  Jesuit  Strada,  concerning  the 
state  of  affairs  at  Kiel,  near  Antwerp,  '*  excelled  the  Cal- 
vinists  or  Reformed,  and  the  Anabaptists,  with  respect  to 
the  quality  of  their  adherents  and  followers,  who  consisted 
of  the  principal  inhabitants."  While  the  Calvinists  went 
to  their  religious  meetings  armed,  the  Lutherans  went 
unarmed.  Finally,  St.  George's  Church,  Antwerp,  was 
assigned  the  Lutherans  for  their  services,  while  no  church 
building  was  allowed  the  Reformed.  The  hostihty  be- 
tween the  two  parties  was  appeased  only  by  the  unwearied 
efforts  of  the  Prince  of  Orange. 

Even  within  the  Reformed  party  dissensions  arose,  as 
some  were  more  conciliatory  and  others  more  aggressive 
with  respect  to  Lutheranism.  John  Arents,  a  Reformed 
pastor  at  Amsterdam,  had  read  from  the  pulpit  Articles  X. 
and  XIII.  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  and  affirmed  that 
he  had  never  taught  anything  contrary  to  these  articles. 
His  brethren  at  Antwerp,  regarding  this  an  unwarranted 
concession  to  Lutheranism,  sent  a  pastor  with  two  elders 
to  obtain  a  recantation,  under  penalty  of  excommunication ; 
but  before  this  could  be  gained  the  Duke  of  Alva  was 
pressing  them  with  a  more  immediate  danger.  This  cir- 
cumstance shows  either  a  more  amicable  feeling  between 
the  Reformed  and  Lutherans  at  Amsterdam  than  at  Ant- 
werp, or  that  at  Amsterdam  the  Lutherans  were  in  the 
preponderance.  However  that  may  be,  the  most  strenuous 
efforts  made  to  induce  the  Reformed  to  subscribe  the  Augs* 
burg  Confession,  as  a  condition  of  a  political  alliance  with 
some  of  the  German  states  for  protection  in  their  extreme 
peril,  all  failed.  The  answer  was  that  *'  they  were  willing 
to  subscribe  to  the  Augsburg  Confession  in  all  matters  con- 
formable to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  left  us  by  the  apostles 
and  prophets,  but,  since  the  article  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 


FLA  CI  us  IN   THE   NETHERLANDS.  29 

in  which  they  differed  from  the  Lutherans,  was  of  very- 
great  importance,  and  required  further  consideration,  they 
should  be  obHged  seriously  to  consult  with  their  ministers, 
and  with  the  gravest  of  their  members,  before  they  could 
come  to  any  resolution."^  In  vain,  in  1567,  William  of 
Orange  urged :  "  Do  what  you  have  been  so  often  advised 
to  do.  Unite  with  the  Lutherans.  The  difference  is  too 
small  for  you  to  keep  up  separate  interests.  In  that  case, 
I  hope  I  shall  be  able  to  defend  you  with  the  help  of  the 
German  princes." - 

The  Lutheran  theologian,  Flacius  lUyricus,  on  his  arrival 
at  Antwerp-  in  October,  1566,  found  that  the  Lutherans 
and  Calvinists  had  each  six  preachers,  and  represented  a 
combined  population  of  about  thirty  thousand  souls.  The 
difficulties  between  the  two  parties  were  not  altogether  of 
a  doctrinal  character.  The  Lutherans  feared  being  com- 
promised by  what  they  regarded  the  radical  attitude  of  the 
Reformed  toward  the  government.  The  opinion  of  Fla- 
cius was :  "  It  is  written  that,  when  for  the  sake  of  religion 
magistrates  persecute  you  in  one  city,  flee  into  another; 
but  it  is  not  written  that,  when  the  magistrates  persecute 
you,  you  are  to  take  up  the  sword  and  attack  them."^ 
This  opinion  seems  not  to  have  been  universally  approved. 
Flacius  himself  wrote  afterward :  *'  If  the  city  is  suddenly 
invested,  ours  will  defend  themselves  with  the  rest."* 
While  his  visit  failed  in  adjusting  the  differences  between 
the  two  confessions,  its  great  significance  lay  in  the  foun- 
dation provided  for  the  more  thorough  organization  of 
Lutheran  congregations.  During  his  stay  he  wrote  a  con- 
fession in  the  name  of  the  preachers  of  Antwerp,  which  ap- 
peared in  Dutch  and  French  in  November,  1567.    With  his 

1  Brandt,  vol.  i.,  p.  223.  2  Ibid.,  p.  253. 

3  Preger's  "  Matthias  Flacius  Illyricus  unci  seine  Zeit,"  vol.  ii. 

4  Ibid. 


30  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  i. 

associates,  he  prepared  also  an  Agcndc,  or  Order  of  Service, 
and  Ministerial  Acts.  The  late  American  liturgical  scholar. 
Dr.  B.  M.  Schmucker,  has  found  that  this  same  year  a 
translation  into  Dutch  of  **  at  least  the  second  part  of  the 
Brandenburg-Nuremberg  Agende"^  was  published  at 
Wesel.  This  second  part  is  the  explanation  of  Luther's 
catechism  in  *'  Sermons  to  Children,"  which,  in  its  English 
translation  of  1549,  is  known  as  **  Cranmer's  Catechism." 
This  suggests  that  the  Dutch  order  of  Flacius  may  have 
been  simply  a  translation  of  the  classical  Brandenburg- 
Nuremberg  Order  of  1533. 

Flacius  intended  to  permanently  identify  himself  with 
the  Lutheran  Church  of  the  Netherlands,  and  left,  to  re- 
move his  family  to  what  he  thought  was  to  be  their  new 
home.  But  before  he  could  return  the  Spanish  persecu- 
tion had  suppressed  the  evangelical  worship  at  Antwerp. 
The  congregation  was  scattered ;  but  by  the  labors  of  Fla- 
cius, Lutheranism  in  Holland  had  been  reduced  to  some 
order,  and  had  now  a  fixed  form. 

As  early  as  1573  the  Lutherans  of  Antwerp  began  to 
emigrate  to  Frankfort  on  the  Main,  where  in  1585  they 
received  large  additions,  when  the  Duke  of  Parma  com- 
pelled those  faithful  to  the  Lutheran  Confession  to  aban- 
don their  old  home.  Their  pastor,  Cassiodorus  Reinius, 
who  came  with  the  exiles  in  1585,  supported  himself  by 
silk- weaving  until  his  death,  in  1594.  They  carried  with 
them  the  written  testimonial  of  the  magistrates  **  that  the 
said  ministers  and  their  assistants  had  ever  since  the  year 
1578,  when  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion  was  allowed 
them,  to  that  very  day  on  which  they  were  forced  to  for- 
bear the  same,  behaved  in  the  government  and  direction  of 
their  church,  and  in  all  other  matters  relating  to  the  com- 

1  Pencil  note  to  Konig's  "  Bibliothcca  x^gendorum,"  p.  3,  in  Liturgical 
Library  at  Mount  Airy. 


CHARGES   OF   THE  REFORMED.  3 1 

mon  good  and  public  tranquillity,  modestly  and  dutifully, 
toward  the  magistrates  and  all  the  higher  powers,  accord- 
ing to  the  stipulations  between  them  and  the  magistrates 
of  the  city."^  A  few  years  before  they  had  been  exiled, 
Conrad  Schliisselberg,  a  name  well  known  among  Luther- 
ans, for  his  able  exposition  of  the  Formula  of  Concord  in 
twelve  volumes,  had  been  one  of  its  pastors,  and  Polycarp 
Lyser,  the  distinguished  editor  of  the  works  of  Chemnitz, 
had  written  him  a  very  decided  protest  for  what  he  re- 
garded his  premature  abandonment  in  1582  of  the  pastor- 
ate at  Antwerp.'-^ 

When  at  last  religious  freedom  was  secured  for  the 
Northern  Provinces,  which  were  bound  together  by  the 
Union  of  Utrecht,  and  the  separation  between  what  became 
the  Protestant  and  the  Roman  Catholic  portions  of  the 
country  was  effected,  the  ecclesiastical  center  of  both  the 
Reformed  and  the  Lutherans  was  at  Amsterdam.  There 
were  frequent  conflicts  between  the  two  parties.  The 
Lutherans,  because  of  their  moderation,  had  to  suffer  for 
what  was  regarded  as  a  lack  of  patriotism  in  the  struggle 
with  Spain.  From  the  controversies  that  had  arisen  in 
Germany  the  Lutherans  of  Holland  could  not  keep  isolated. 
It  was  with  the  very  purpose  of  silencing  a  charge  which 
was  afterward  made  by  the  Arminian  prime-minister  and 
theologian  Grotius,  in  a  remarkable  speech  before  the 
magistrates  of  Amsterdam  in  1 616,  that  the  Lutherans  of 
Holland,  to  the  great  offense  of  the  Reformed,  were  advo- 
cates of  the  Formula  of  Concord  of  1580.  The  charge  of 
Grotius  was  that  Lutheranism  was  a  schism,  which  **  had 
its  beginning  about  the  year  1530,"  and  that  it  was  follow- 
ing the  prescribed  course  of  all  schisms.  As  both  Dona- 
tists  and  Novatians  had  been  divided  into  numerous  sects, 

1  Brandt,  vol.  i.,  p.  400.  2  "  Epistolas,"  p.  288. 


32  THE   LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  i. 

SO  "  the  Lutherans,  after  having  separated  from  the  rest  of 
the  Protestant  churches,  were  immediately  spHt  into  Fla- 
cians,  Osiandrians,  etc."  But  the  Lutherans  of  Holland 
were  not  chargeable  with  these  errors  and  divisions.  Even 
in  Antwerp,  the  adherents  of  Flacius,  when  he  propounded 
his  peculiar  views  concerning  sin  and  human  nature  being 
since  the  fall  identical,  had  not  been  as  many  as  the  con- 
nection of  Flacius  with  that  congregation,  and  his  influence 
in  it  and  the  entire  Netherlands  for  good,  would  have  war- 
ranted. No  language  can  be  clearer  than  that  in  which 
the  preface  to  the  "  Book  of  Concord  "  refers  with  sympa- 
thy to  the  persecuted  Reformed,  and,  with  indignant  cen- 
sure, to  their  persecutors  in  the  Netherlands. 

By  this  writing  of  ours,  we  testify  in  the  sight  of  Ahiiighty  God,  and 
before  the  entire  ^church,  that  it  has  never  been  our  purpose,  by  means  of 
this  godly  formula  for  union,  to  occasion  trouble  or  danger  to  the  godly  who 
to-day  are  suffering  persecution.  For  as,  moved  by  Christian  love,  we  have 
already  entered  into  the  fellowship  of  grief  with  them,  so  we  are  shocked 
at  the  persecution  and  most  grievous  tyranny  which,  with  such  severity,  is 
exercised  against  these  poor  men,  and  sincerely  detest  it.  For  in  no  way  do 
we  consent  to  the  shedding  of  that  innocent  blood,  for  which  undoubtedly  a 
reckoning  will  be  demanded  with  great  severity  from  the  persecutors  at  the 
awful  judgment  of  the  Lord,  and  before  the  tribunal  of  Christ,  and  they  will 
certainly  render  a  most  strict  account  and  suffer  fearful  punishment. i 

But  the  Reformed  in  Holland  interpreted  the  Formula 
as  a  declaration  of  war  against  them,  and  wrote  a  long  and 
decided  but,  in  tone,  very  conciliatory  protest,  complaining 
of  the  document  as  an  injury  and  misrepresentation  of 
them  and  their  teaching,  addressed  to  Andreae,  Chemnitz, 
and  the  other  authors,  and  signed  '*  the  ministers  of  the 
Reformed  churches  in  the  Netherlands."  Even  with  this 
opposition  they  reduce  the  points  of  difference  between 
the  Reformed  and  the  Formula  of  Concord  to  a  minimum. 
"  Even  our  greatest  enemies,"  they  say,  *'  are  convinced 

1  "  Book  of  Concord"  (Jacobs),  vol,  i.,  p.  17. 


SV.VOn    OF  AMSTERDAM. 


33 


that  all  our  differences  consist  at  present  in  two  points 
only."^  With  the  Formula's  clear  statements  concerning 
Flacianism,  Osiandrianism,  Antinomianism,  and  Synergism, 
they  seem  to  have  no  difficulty.  They  argue  that  the 
Formula's  professed  agreement  with  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession settles  nothing,  "  for  we  do  not  look  upon  that  con- 
fession to  be  a  gospel."  '*  Zwingli,  CEcolampaclius,  Bucer, 
Melanchthon,  and  Martyr,"  they  say,  '*  do  far  exceed 
Luther  in  learning." 

In  the  controversies  of  those  times  there  were  undoubt- 
edly intemperate  and  injudicious  representatives  of  Luther- 
anism,  who  did  the  cause  they  advocated  more  harm  than 
good  by  the  bitterness  which  they  introduced  into  the 
discussions.  To  sift  the  evidence  is  almost  impossible. 
But  we  can  readily  understand  how,  at  Woerden,  where 
there  was  a  German  garrison  and  the  German  influence 
was  strongest,  national  and  linguistic  elements  would  easily 
be  intermingled  with  the  doctrinal  differences.  From  these 
various  circumstances  it  can  be  seen  that  the  struggle  of 
Lutheranism  for  existence  in  Holland  was  not  over  when 
danger  from  Spain  had  passed.  A  few  extracts  from  the 
Remonstrant  historian  will  illustrate  this. 

In  the  synod  at  Amsterdam,  in  January,  1600,  it  was 
resolved  **  that  the  ministers  should  lay  before  the  magis- 
trates an  account  of  the  places  where  the  Lutherans  met, 
with  reasons  for  suppressing  the  conventicles."-  When 
the  magistrates  of  Woerden  began  to  act  accordingly,  and 
an  appeal  to  the  States- General  was  made  in  1602  by  the 
Lutherans,  the  deputies  from  the  various  provinces  were 
almost  unanimous  in  sustaining  the  appeal.  "  Leyden  was 
of  the  opinion  that  the  petitioners  were  the  best  patriots  of 
the  state,  and  that  they  ought  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  what 

1  Brandt,  vol.  i.,  p.  365.  2  Ihid.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  15. 


34  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  i. 

was  formerly  conceded  them."^  The  succeeding  year,  an- 
other attempt  was  made  by  the  Reformed  synod,  in  which 
they  preferred  a  complaint  against  *'  the  scandal  which  was 
occasioned  to  good  and  sincere  minds  by  the  too  public 
exercise  of  religion,  performed  by  those  who  indeed  call 
themselves  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  but  who  are  not 
so ;  forasmuch  as  our  religion,  which  is  styled  the  Re- 
formed, has  a  greater  conformity  to  it,  in  the  matter  of  the 
Lord's  Supper."'^  The  final  result,  a  year  afterward,  was 
that  the'  Lutherans  were  allowed  religious  services,  on  the 
condition  of  their  holding  them  at  an  hour  when  they 
would  be  attended  ''  with  as  little  scandal  and  offense  to 
the  members  of  the  Reformed  Church  as  possible.""^  The 
hours  were  accordingly  fixed  as  from  April  ist  to  the  close 
of  October  at  7  A.M.  and  5  P.M.  ;  and  from  November  ist 
to  the  close  of  March,  8  A.M.  and  4  P.M.,  or  '*  as  the  day- 
light would  permit."  The  pastor  Glaserus  was  informed 
that,  in  case  of  any  violation  of  this  rule,  his  town  would  be 
"  placed  upon  the  same  footing  with  the  rest  of  the  towns 
of  Holland  and  West  Friesland,  where  no  other  religion 
besides  that  of  the  true  Christian  Reformed  was  allowed."^ 
In  1603  the  clergy  of  Holland  and  West  Friesland  pub- 
lished a  remonstrance,  in  which,  referring  to  the  Lutherans, 
they  say  :  "  Their  assemblies  and  the  exercise  of  their  per- 
suasion in  some  of  the  principal  towns,  as  Amsterdam,  Rot- 
terdam, W^oerden,  and  elsewhere,  are  very  dangerous  and 
hurtful,  not  only  to  the  church,  but  also  to  the  state. "^ 
When  the  distinguished  Remonstrant  preacher  Uyeten- 
bogart  was  told  of  these  efforts  by  some  deputies  of  the 
Synod  of  South  Holland,  he  remarked  :  **  You  are  a  strange 
kind  of  people ;  you  bear  harder  upon  those  who  differ 
little  with  you,  than  upon  those  who  differ  much."^     In 

1  Brandt,  vol.  ii.,  p.  15.  2  Jhid.  3  //;/,/.,  p.  16. 

4  n>id.,  p.  17.  5  Jbid.,  p.  29.  6  Ji)id.^  p.  30. 


THE   INTERDICT   UPON  LUTIIERANISM.  35 

1604  the  Lutherans  were  denied  for  a  time  the  right  of 
private  meetings  in  Amsterdam. 

One  more  illustration  will  suffice:  in  161 5  the  classis 
of  Woerden  petitioned  that  the  Lutherans  at  Bodegrave 
should  not  be  allowed  to  hold  separate  meetings,  and  urged 
the  following  reasons :  **  First,  because  they  agreed  with 
the  Reformed  Church  in  the  fundamentals  of  religion." 
The  Lutherans  were  thus  impaled  upon  the  horns  of  a 
dilemma.  If  they  had  been  fundamental  errorists,  then  the 
plea  would  have  been  that  the  exercise  of  their  religion 
was  perilous  to  both  church  and  state ;  but  since  it  was 
acknowledged  to  be  fundamentally  correct,  it  must  be  sup- 
pressed as  unnecessary.  *'  Secondly,  because  one  of  the 
principal  inducements  for  making  a  schism  had  been  re- 
moved by  the  resolutions  which  the  states  of  Holland  had 
taken  for  the  preservation  of  the  church's  peace.  Thirdly, 
because  they,  the  ministers  of  the  Reformed  Church,  were 
willing  to  admit  the  said  Lutherans  to  Christian  commun- 
ion, and  allow  them  to  retain  their  opinions,  provided  they 
were  quiet.  Fourthly,  because  they  had  refused  to  admit 
our  people  at  Hamburg,  and  elsewhere,  to  their  commun- 
ion, upon  the  very  same  foot.  Fifthly,  because  it  gave  of- 
fense ;  nothing  of  this  nature  having  been  tolerated  in  any 
of  the  towns  of  Holland.  Sixthly,  because  their  proceed- 
ings were  contrary  to  the  former  resolutions  of  the  states, 
and  particularly  to  their  last  public  prohibition ;  besides, 
that  many  who  were  used  to  come  to  church,  and  were 
well  enough  contented,  were  now  dissatisfied,  and  stayed 
away,  to  the  diminution  of  the  alms,  prejudice  of  the  poor, 
and  increase  of  the  troubles  and  divisions."^ 

This  antagonism  proved  more  annoying  than  formidable. 
The  "  states  of  Holland  "  were  on  the  side  of  tolerance, 

1  Brandt,  vol.  ii.,  p.  188. 


36  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  i. 

The  rise  of  Arminlanism,  just  as  the  seventeenth  century 
was  entered,  gave  Calvinism  in  Holland  an  opponent,  which, 
for  the  time  being,  was  deemed  more  formidable.  The 
struggle  was  political  as  well  as  theological  and  ecclesias- 
tical. Maurice  of  Orange  became  the  warm  friend  and  pro- 
moter of  Calvinism.  Arminianism  had  its  exile  in  one  of 
the  greatest  of  Dutch  scholars,  jurists,  and  theologians, 
Grotius,  and  its  distinguished  martyr  in  John  of  Barneveldt. 
It  was  condemned  in  the  decrees  of  the  Synod  of  Dort  of 
1619.  The  Arminian  preachers  and  teachers  were  ex- 
pelled from  most  of  the  states.  The  Lutherans  saw  that 
the  decrees  of  Dort  had  wider  application  than  to  the 
Arminians,  and  that,  even  though  their  execution  with  re- 
spect to  them  were  not  enforced,  nevertheless  whenever  the 
circumstance  that  they  were  fortified  by  their  connection 
with  German  states  and  princes,  whose  disfavor  was  feared, 
would  change,  they  must  eventually  suffer.  The  theologi- 
cal faculty  at  Wittenberg  reviewed  the  decrees  of  Dort  in 
a  book,  issued  in  1621,  entitled  ''A  Faithful  Warning  to 
all  the  Lutheran  Christians  in  Bohemia,  Moravia,  Silesia, 
and  Other  Countries  Thereunto  Belonging,  Carefully  to  Ab- 
stain from  the  Erroneous  and  Highly  Pernicious  Calvinistic 
Religion,"  which  gives  warning  that  Lutherans  in  Reformed 
districts  of  Germany  have  serious  grounds  for  apprehend- 
ing similar  treatment  to  that  which  the  Arminians  suffered 
at  Dort.  A  change  occurred  on  the  death  of  Maurice 
in  1625.  \\\  1630  the  Arminians  were  allowed  to  erect 
churches  and  schools  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 

Amid  all  these  occurrences  a  succession  of  Lutheran 
pastors  labored  quietly,  but  none  the  less  faithfully,  in  the 
large  congregation  at  Amsterdam. ^ 

1  Their  names  are  worthy  of  record.  We  give  the  list  until  the  close  of 
the  century:  1589,  A.  Nesscher,  until  1601  ;  1590,  J.  van  der  Popelier,  until 
1593;   I594>  A.  Visscher,  died  1613;    1601,  J.  Willemsz,  died  1615;   1605, 


LAIFS   OF   WILLIAM  OF   ORANGE.  37 

The  regulations  for  the  government  of  the  churches  in 
Holland  were  framed  according  to  the  Ecclesiastical  Laws 
of  1577.  published  by  Wilham  of  Orange  and  the  States- 
General.  As  they  prevailed  not  only  in  the  Reformed  but 
also  in  the  Lutheran  churches  of  Holland,  they  aid  us  in 
tracing  peculiarities  in  our  own  church  government,  derived 
from  the  Dutch  Lutherans.  These  regulations  of  William 
begin  with  the  statement  that  in  the  administration  of 
church  government  there  are  four  classes  of  officers :  pas- 
tors, doctors  or  professors  of  theology,  elders,  and  deacons. 
No  one  is  to  enter  the  ministry  unless  duly  called.  When 
elected  to  a  congregation,  he  must  submit  to  an  examina- 
tion before  the  elders  of  the  church.  No  one  is  to  be  ad- 
mitted into  the  pulpit  of  a  church  until  his  name  have  been 
published  therefrom  for  three  successive  Sundays.  The 
ministers  of  every  town  are  to  hold  a  pastoral  conference 
every  two  weeks,  and  each  member,  in  turn,  is  to  open 
the  meetings  with  an  exegetical  paper,  which  is  then  to  be 
discussed.  All  dissensions  among  ministers  are  to  be  set- 
tled, if  possible,  among  the  ministers  alone ;  if  not,  they  are 
to  be  referred  to  the  elders ;  and  if  the  elders  do  not  suc- 
ceed in  adjusting  the  difficulty,  the  magistrate  is  appealed 
to.  When  charges  against. a  minister  are  not  sustained, 
those  who  have  brought  the  accusation  are  to  be  punished. 
Annual  visitations  are  to  be  made  throughout  the  country 
churches  by  two  elders  and  one  or  two  of  the  ministers  of 


J.  Cremerius,  until  1608;  1609,  C.  Pfyffer,  died  1643;  1613,  A.  Glaserus, 
died  1624;  1615,  J.  van  Batevelt,  died  1633  ;  1626,  J,  von  Wullen,  died  1640; 
1630,  Adolphus  Visscher  Adolfz,  died  1652;  1641,  Paulus  Cordes,  died  1674; 
1643,  Elias  Taddel,  died  1660;  1644,  R.  Ligarius,  died  1680;  1655,  J.  E. 
Bloom,  died  1683;  1660,  C.  Hoppe,  died  1670;  1662,  H.  van  Born,  died 
1701;  1670,  V.  Visscher,  died  1678;  1673,  A.  G.  Velten,  died  1679;  1678, 
H.  Vos,  died  1708;  1679,  J.  Colerus,  until  1693;  1680,  P.  Weslingh.,  died 
1732;  1683,  T.  Dominicus,  died  1713;  1692,  B.  Haan,  died  1702. — "Acta 
Ilistorica-Ecclesiastica,"  vol.  vii.,  p.-  34  sqq. 


38  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  i. 

every  capital  town.  Baptism  is  to  be  administered  only 
by  ministers,  and,  unless  the  necessity  be  urgent,  only  in 
the  church.  No  child  offered  for  baptism  is  to  be  rejected. 
Sponsors  are  neither  to  be  required  nor  refused.  The 
Lord's  Supper  is  to  be  administered  at  Easter,  Whitsun- 
day, first  Sunday  in  September,  and  Sunday  after  Christ- 
mas. Notice  is  to  be  given  the  preceding  Sunday,  that 
children  coming  to  the  Lord's  Table  for  the  first  time  may 
be  instructed  in  the  catechism,  and  that  opportunity  may 
be  given  for  conference  with  others  who  desire  it.  The 
communicants  are  to  be  exhorted  to  examine  themselves, 
lest  they  eat  and  drink  to  condemnation.  Every  commu- 
nicant receives  the  elements  immediately  from  the  minister. 
The  lay  eldership  is  established  by  the  following  provision : 

The  magistrates  of  every  place  shall  choose  from  among  themselves  more 
or  fewer  persons,  according  to  their  numbers,  good  men  and  such  as  are  not 
inexperienced  in  the  business  of  religion,  in  order  to  assist  the  pastors  in 
church  aflfairs,  and  to  be  present  at  their  meetings,  to  the  end  that,  if  any- 
thing should  be  transacted  there  of  which  the  government  ought  to  be  in- 
formed, they  may  give  an  account  of  it,  and  do  such  other  things  as  the  law 
has  annexed  to  their  ofifice. 

The  deacons  are  "  godly  stewards  who  understand  how 
to  assist  the  poor,  according  to  their  necessities,  in  order 
that  the  trade  of  begging  may  be  prevented,  and  the  poor 
contained  within  the  bounds  of  their  duty."  ^ 

Eleven  years  before  these  laws  were  promulgated,  viz., 
in  1566,  William,  with*  the  concurrence  of  the  magistrates, 
had  named  the  elders  for  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Ant- 
werp.^ Flacius  approved  the  presbytery  of  twelve  elders, 
to  which  he  became  an  official  counselor. 

We  find  the  regulations  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Hol- 
land, in  their  fully  developed  form,  in  a  statistical  work 

1  Brandt,  vol.  i.,  pp.  318-22.  2  Preger,  vol.  ii.,  p.  287. 


THE   CHURCH  AT  AMSTERDAM,  39 

published  before  the  seventeenth  century  closed,  Benthem's 
"  Condition  of  the  Churches  and  Schools  of  Holland." 
This  writer  says  that,  with  the  exception  of  doctrine,  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  Holland  was,  at  that  time,  in  all  re- 
spects the  same  as  the  Reformed.  It  had  complied  with 
this  external  order  as  the  price  of  toleration,  and,  besides 
this,  had  been  closely  related  to  the  Lutheran  Church  at 
Strassburg,  where  a  similar  resemblance  to  the  Reformed 
had  prevailed.  It  was  not  only  numerous,  but  it  possessed, 
in  other  respects,  the  highest  standing.  At  that  time  there 
were  thirty-four  churches  and  forty-five  ministers,  nearly 
all  of  whom  had  been  educated  at  Jena.  While,  since  then, 
there  has  been  a  steady  growth,  how  slow  it  has  been  may 
be  seen  when  we  find  that  in  two  centuries  there  has  been 
an  increase  of  only  about  thirty  ministers,  including  the  two 
branches  into  which  the  Lutherans  of  Holland  are  now 
divided.  At  Amsterdam  there  were  for  the  one  congrega- 
tion two  church  buildings,  with  six  ministers,  one  of  whom 
preached  in  German,  and  thirty  thousand  souls.  For  many 
generations  it  had  the  distinction  of  being  the  largest 
Lutheran  congregation  in  the  world.  This  large  and 
wealthy  congregation  had  to  bear  the  chief  burden  of  the 
support  of  the  Lutheran  Church  throughout,  the  entire 
country ;  and  with,  this  responsibility  it  gained  correspond- 
ing influence.  Spener  complained  afterward  that  this  in- 
fluence was  abused,  and  the  consistorium  of  Amsterdam 
domineered  over  the  Lutheran  congregations  in  Holland.  1 
Every  five  years  a  synod  of  all  the  Lutheran  congregations 
was  held  at  Amsterdam.  It  was  the  gradual  development 
of  the  union,  made  in  1605,  between  seven  of  the  Lutheran 
pastors,  whose  parishes  had  previously  been  isolated  and 
independent,  which  was  followed  by  the  '*  Fraternity  "  of 

1  "  Letze  Bedenken  "  (1693),  vol.  iii.,  p.  417. 


40  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  i. 

1 6 14.  Important  matters  occurring  between  the  meetings 
were  settled,  if  possible,  by  an  appeal  to  the  three  nearest 
congregations:  Next  to  the  congregation  at  Amsterdam, 
that  at  Leyden,  with  seven  hundred  members  and  two 
ministers,  ranked  in  importance. 

Their  public  service  was  very  similar  to  that  of  their 
Reformed  neighbors  ;  and  yet  it  had  s(5me  noteworthy  feat- 
ures. The  gospels  and  epistles  for  the  church  year  were 
read  in  course  and  explained.  Besides  Luther's  Catechism, 
questions  prepared  by  John  Ligarius  were  used  in  the  in- 
struction of  the  young.  Fliedner,  writing  in  1831,  notes, 
with  other  indications  of  the  desolations  made  by  Ration- 
alistic influences,  that,  instead  of  Luther's  Catechism,  every 
preacher  was  then  using  whatever  he  pleased.  The  church 
prayers  of  the  Dutch  Lutheran  churches  of  the  sixteenth 
century  were  not  extemporaneous,  but  those  which  the 
church  appointed  were  read  before  and  after  the  sermon. 
Baptism  was  without  exorcism.  Before  communion,  in- 
stead of  the  private  confession  that  had  been  usual  in  other 
portions  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  a  preparatory  service 
with  public  absolution  was  held  the  preceding  Friday. 
The  following  extract  from  the  order  of  confession  and  ab- 
solution will  doubtless  interest  many : 

1.  I  ask  you,  in  God's  stead,  whether  you  experience  in  yourselves,  and, 
■with  humble  hearts,  confess  that  you  are  poor,  lost  sinners,  who  have  often 
and  grievously  offended  the  Lord  your  God,  secretly  and  openly,  knowingly 
and  ignorantly,  in  thoughts,  words,  and  deeds,  and  besides  have  in  various 
ways  also  injured  your  neighbors,  and  have  thus  deserved  all  temporal  and 
eternal  punishments?    And  do  you  pray  God  to  forgive  you?    Answer,  Yes. 

2.  I  ask  you  whether  you  firmly  believe  that  God,  according  to  his  infinite 
mercy,  for  the  sake  of  the  precious  merits  of  Jesus  Christ,  his  Son,  not  only 
forgives  you  all  your  sins,  but  also,  as  a  seal  thereof,  in  the  Lord's  Supper 
gives  us  his  Body  and  Blood,  under  the  bread  and  wine  to  eat  and  drink? 
Is  this  your  sincere  belief?     Answer,   Yes. 

3.  I  ask  you  whether  it  be  also,  by  God's  grace,  your  purpose  to  amend 
your  sinful  lives,  to  bring  forth  the  true  fruits  of  repentance  and  faith,  to 
show  yourselves  to  be  new  creatures  in  Christ,  to  walk  in  the  Spirit,  after 


CHURCH  CONSTITUTIONS.  4I 

the  new  man,  and  not  only  to  forgive  from  the  heart  your  neighbor  who  has 
offended  you,  but  also  to  prove  your  love  to  him,  and  henceforth  to  remain 
faithful  to  God's  everlasting  Word,  and  our  true  Christian  religion  even  unto 
death?     Anszver,   Yes. 

The  Faithful  and  Merciful  God,  who  has  given  you  to  will  this,  will  also 
enable  you  to  accomplish  it,  to  the  glory  of  his  holy  name,  and  to  the  ever- 
lasting salvation  of  you  all,  through  Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 

Humble  yourselves,  then,  before  the  Lord  your  God,  confess  to  him,  with 
broken  and  contrite  hearts,  all  your  sins,  and  pray  with  me : 

Most  Just  and  Merciful  God,  we  poor  men  confess  not  only  that  we  have 
been  conceived  and  born  in  sins,  but  that  we  have  often  offended  against  thy 
holy  commandments  and  grievously  transgressed  them.  But  as  Jesus  Christ 
has  come  into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  we  pray,  O  faithful  God  and  Father, 
that,  for  Christ's  sake,  thou  wouldst  forgive  all  our  sins,  receive  us  into  thy 
grace,  and  grant  us  everlasting  life.  Grant  us  also,  Heavenly  Father,  heart- 
felt repentance,  firm  faith,  true  godliness  of  life,  and  steadfastness,  even  unto 
the  end,  through  Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 

Upon  this,  your  confession  and  prayer  to  God,  as  a  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  in  accordance  with  his  Word  in  John,  the  twentieth  chapter, 
"  W^hosesoever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto  them;  and  whosesoever 
sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained,"  I  declare  unto  all  who  are  penitent  the 
forgiveness  of  all  their  sins,  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  unto  the  impenitent,  their  sins  are  retained, 
until  they  amend,  for  which  may  God  grant  them  grace,  through  Jesus 
Christ,  in  whose  name  we  pray:   "  Our  Father,  who  art  in  heaven,"  etc. 

The  church  constitution  of  1597,  as  revised  in  1614,  1644, 
and  1 68 1,  binds  all  preachers  to  teach  according  to  the  rule 
of  the  divine  Word,  as  declared  in  the  prophetic  and  apos- 
tolic Scriptures,  and  forbids  them  to  depart  from  either  the 
doctrine  or  the  modes  of  expression  ''  of  our  symbolical 
books,  viz.,  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession,  its  Apol- 
ogy, the  Smalcald  Articles,  and  the  Formula  of  Concord, 
together  with  the  two  catechisms  of  Luther."  All  ser- 
mons are  to  be  directed  to  the  edification  of  the  congrega- 
tion, by  teaching  God's  Word  purely,  distinguishing  be- 
tween true  and  false  doctrine,  and,  with  all  plainness  and 
directness,  reproving  sin.  The  constitution  directs  that  the 
morning  sermons  must  always  be  on  the  gospel  for  the  day, 
and  the  afternoon  sermon  on  the  epistle,  Luther's  Cate- 


42  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  1. 

chism,  or  some  other  edifying  text.  The  Sunday  morning 
service  is  Hmited  to  two  hours,  and  the  afternoon  and  week- 
day services  to  an  hour.  In  after-years,  with  the  Ration- 
ahstic  deterioration  the  length  of  the  sermons  seems  to  have 
increased,  Augusti,  in  1837,^  complaining  of  the  extensive 
length  of  their  discourses  of  from  two  to  three  hours,  which 
had  grown  by  concession  to  a  popular  demand.  This  has 
been  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  a  living  American 
Lutheran  minister,  who  formerly  resided  in  Holland,  and 
was  a  frequent  worshiper  in  those  churches. 

The  Lutherans  of  that  purer  period,  which  the  emigrants 
who  founded  our  church  in  America  represented,  during 
Lent  heard  the  Passion  History  explained,  and,  as  chil- 
dren, were  examined  every  Sunday  afternoon  in  the  cate- 
chism. No  private  religious  meetings  were  held  without 
the  knowledge  and  approval  of  the  pastor.  The  adminis- 
tration of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  announced  two  weeks  in 
advance.  Before  their  first  communion,  a  careful  exami- 
nation was  made  of  all  young  persons.  To  prevent  those 
from  coming  to  the  Lord's  Supper  who  had  not  been  prop- 
erly instructed  and  been  present  at  the  preparatory  service, 
or  otherwise  privately  conferred  with  the  pastor,  the  cus- 
tom widely  prevalent  in-  the  Reformed  Church  had  been 
adopted  by  the  Lutherans.  Those  entitled  to  commune 
were  furnished  with  ''tokens,"  which  the  elders  standing 
by  the  side  of  the  Lord's  Table  received  as  the  communi- 
cants approached.  At  the  previous  distribution  of  the 
tokens  by  the  elders  to  applicants,  one  or  more  of  the  pas- 
tors was  present  to  see  that  none  received  them  who  should 
not  commune.  As  they  received  the  communion  they 
knelt,  and  psalms  and  hymns  were  sung  by  the  rest  of  the 
congregation.     Rigid  discipline  was  exercised  according  to 

1  Vol,  ii.,  p.  409. 


THE  LA  V  ELDERS.  43 

a  detailed  process.  The  church  constitution  admonishes 
those  whom  the  Lord  has  endowed  with  riches  to  make 
provision  in  their  wills  for  the  church  and  the  poor;  and 
charges  pastors  in  all  their  sermons  to  urge  works  of  love 
toward  the  poor,  and  to  never  forget  to  pray  for  the  sick. 

Every  congregation  was  governed  by  a  "  consistorium," 
composed  of  the  pastors  and  lay  elders,  or  such  other  per- 
sons as  were  elected  by  the  congregation.  The  final  deci- 
sion in  all  doctrinal  questions  belonged  to  the  pastors.  All 
discussions  of  the  consistorium  w^ere  secret.  Ordinations 
occurred  either  in  the  congregation  of  which  the  candidate 
had  been  elected  pastor,  or  in  the  congregation  at  Amster- 
dam. The  representatives  of  the  three  nearest  congrega- 
tions and  a  representative  of  the  congregation  at  Amster- 
dam officiated  at  such  ordinations.  Controversies  between 
pastors  were  not  brought  before  the  congregation,  but  were 
settled  in  the  consistorium.  The  congregation  was  held 
responsible  for  the  support  of  the  widows  and  orphans  of 
its  pastors. 

The  provisions  of  the  Holland  order  concerning  lay  eld- 
ers especially  concern  us,  since  we  know  their  influence 
upon  our  own  churches.  The  time  for  their  election  was 
fixed  as  the  first  Sunday  in  May,  at  the  time  and  place  of 
the  afternoon  service.  Ten  names  were  nominated  yearly 
for  elders,  and  twelve  for  deacons,  double  the  number  to 
be  elected.  The  term  of  service  was  two  years.  No  one 
elected  was  excused,  unless  for  most  clear  and  weighty 
reasons.  To  avoid  all  ofTense,  a  father  and  son,  or  two 
brothers,  or  two  brothers-in-law  could  not  serve  in  these 
offices  at  the  same  time.  They  were  installed  with  the  lay- 
ing on  of  hands,  and,  at  the  expiration  of  their  term,  they 
were  dismissed  from  office,  according  to  a  very  full  order, 
in  which  they  receive  the  thanks  of  the  congregation  for 
their  services,  and  the  benediction  of  the  pastor.     They 


44  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  i. 

were  responsible  for  the  pure  preaching  of  God's  Word, 
the  right  administration  of  the  sacraments,  the  godly  life, 
and  the  observance  of  the  church  regulations  by  the  pas- 
tor ;  and,  for  this  purpose,  the  presence  of  at  least  some  of 
the  elders  at.  every  public  service  was  deemed  necessary. 
On  the  dismission  of  the  congregation,  they  stood  by  the 
door  with  the  receptacles  for  the  collections  in  their  hands, 
in  order  to  receive  the  contributions  of  the  people  for  the 
support  of  the  church  and  for  the  poor.  In  this  they  were 
aided  by  the  deacons.  They  saw  to  the  support  of  the 
pastor,  and  cooperated  with  him  in  removing  all  causes  of 
offense  among  the  members,  in  reproving  sin  wherever  it 
occurred,  in  bringing  the  erring  to  repentance,  or,  where 
this  could  not  be  effected,  in  the  exercise  of  discipline. 

The  deacons  wxre  purely  collectors  and  distributers  of 
alms.  In  their  house-to-house  visitations  they  were  charged 
with  the  duty  of  bringing  to  the  church  service  those  who 
had  been  negligent  in  this  particular.  There  was  also  a 
special  office  devoted  to  the  care  of  the  sick.  This  included 
frequent  visitations  by  one  competent  to  console  the  sick 
with  God's  Word,  who  reported  to  the  pastor  as  his  spiritual, 
and  to  the  deacons  as  their  pecuniary,  aid  was  needed. 
As  parish  clerk,  the  same  officer  was  charged  with  the  duty 
of  putting  the  hymns  on  the  hymn-board,  keeping  the  reg- 
ister of  baptisms  and  marriages,  collecting  the  requests  for 
the  special  prayers  of  the  congregation,  and  reporting  all 
irregularities  of  those  receiving  alms  to  the  deacons  or  con- 
sistorium.  This  office  of  Zieken-trooster,  ''  comforter  of  the 
sick,"  was  found  in  the  Reformed  churches  in  Holland,  and 
was  transplanted  by  them  to  America. 

Such  was  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Holland  when  it  sent 
members  to  the  colony  which  Holland  had  founded  on 
the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  and  when  the  Dutch  Lutheran 
churches  in  New  York  were  under  the  care  of  the  consis- 


CAUSES   OF  DECLIXE. 


45 


torium  of  Amsterdam.  Overshadowed,  on  the  one  hand, 
by  the  great  numerical  superiority  of  the  Reformed  Church, 
to  which  it  aimed  at  conforming  in  all  external  things,  and 
entirely  dependent,  on  the  other,  upon  Germany  for  the 
training  of  its  ministry,  it  was  unable  to  develop  a  life  of 
its  own,  and  became,  in  the  last  century,  an  easy  prey  to 
the  desolations  of  Rationalism,  as  they  pervaded  both  the 
Reformed  Church  of  Holland  and  Lutheran  Germany,  or 
were  drawn  from  contact  with  Arminianism,  as  it  met  the 
same  crisis.  A  church  that  is  satisfied  with  importing  its 
theology  from  abroad,  and  at  most  translating  it  into  the 
language  of  the  nation  which  it  has  entered,  will  have  far 
less  influence  on  that  nation,  than  the  prevalent  national  life 
and  thought  will  have  upon  it.  This  the  Lutheran  Church 
of  Holland  has  felt  to  its  sorrow.  The  prevalent  tendency 
is  still  that  of  the  Modern  Criticism  that  flourishes  so  ex- 
tensively in  that  land.  The  Rationalistic  struggle,  how- 
ever, led  to  the  separation  of  a  number  of  churches  and 
pastors  at  the  close  of  the  last  century,  who  have  attempted 
to  restore  a  pure  Lutheranism  by  holding  more  closely  to 
the  Augsburg  Confession  and  reverting  to  a  more  churchly 
order  of  service.  Both  divisions  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
in  Holland  provide  now  for  theological  training  in  Holland, 
the  more  liberal  by  a  theological  seminary  at  Amsterdam, 
founded  in  1816,  with  a  few  students,  and  the  more  ortho- 
dox by  the  delivery  of  theological  lectures  in  the  univer- 
sity at  Am.sterdam  by  one  of  the  professors. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  LUTHERANS  OF  THE  NEW  NETHERLANDS 
(1624- 1  700). 

The  Dutch  Lutherans  of  New  York  are  assigned  the 
priority,  not  because  of  the  date  in  which  they  had  organ- 
ized congregations — for  in  this  respect  the  Swedes  are 
clearly  in  advance — but  because  of  the  time  in  which  they 
most  probably  had  members  in  this  country.  While  the 
earliest  mention  of  them  is  that  made  by  the  Jesuit  mis- 
sionary, Jogues,  in  1643,  yet  they  are  there  referred  to  as 
enjoying  religious  liberty,  notwithstanding  the  law  against 
other  faiths  than  the  Reformed,  which  was  not  enforced. 
Even  the  Reformed,  notwithstanding  their  preponderance 
in  numbers,  and  the  fact  that  they  constituted  the  state 
church  in  Holland,  did  not  begin  an  organized  congrega- 
tion for  several  years.  The  earlier  settlers  of  New  York 
came  for  commercial  purposes.  Unlike  the  Pilgrims  of 
New  England,  the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania,  the  Salzburg- 
ers  of  Georgia,  and  the  Palatinates  of  the  succeeding  cent- 
ury, there  was  no  religious  motive  back  of  their  emigra- 
tion. The  settlers  were  the  more  adventurous  spirits  of 
the  golden  age  of  Holland,  when  she  ranked  with  France 
and  England  among  the  first  powers  in  the  world.  The 
heart  of  the  whole  movement  was  at  Amsterdam.  Among 
the  thirty  thousand  Lutherans  of  that  city,  comprising  much 
wealth  and  influence,  there  were  undoubtedly  those  found 
who  from  the  very  beginning  cooperated  with  the  rest  of 
their  countrymen  in  this  enterprise.     The  smaller  places 

46 


THE    WEST  INDIA    COMPANY.  47 

furnished  their  representatives,  while  it  is  not  improbable 
that  exiled  families  from  Antwerp  and  other  portions  of 
the  Catholic  provinces  were  in  the  number. 

A  brief  glance  at  the  history  of  the  Dutch  colony  is  of 
service  in  enabling  us  to  understand  the  position  and  sig- 
nificance of  these  first  Lutheran  emigrants.  In  1609  Henry 
Hudson,  an  Englishman  in  the  service  of  the  Dutch  East 
India  Company,  had  discovered  and  explored  the  river  that 
bears  his  name.  In  1612  three  Amsterdam  merchants  sent 
two  vessels  to  the  Hudson  to  trade  with  the  Indians,  which 
were  followed  the  succeeding  year  by  two  more.  Fort  Nas- 
sau, near  Albany,  was  built  at  this  time,  and  huts  were  built 
on  the  southern  part  of  Manhattan  Island.  These  ventures 
proving  successful,  a  charter  was  granted  Amsterdam  mer- 
chants in  1 6 14  allowing  them  the  exclusive  right  of  trade 
for  three  years.  They  prepared  the  way  for  further  enter- 
prise especially  by  the  treaty  of  Tawasentha  with  the  In- 
dians, which  established  the  generally  pacific  character  and 
friendly  relations  of  the  Dutch  to  the  natives.  Although 
there  was  at  times,  and  particularly  so  during  the  adminis- 
tration of  Kieft,  war  between  the  two  sides,  the  Dutch 
knew  too  well  how  greatly  their  success  as  traders  in  furs 
depended  upon  their  amicable  intercourse  w4th  those  whom 
they  used  as  their  agents  in  gathering  them.  As  clear- 
headed, practical  men,  thoroughly  pervaded  by  the  mer- 
cantile spirit,  their  wrongs  to  the  Indians  were  inflicted 
more  by  their  shrewd  bargains  than  by  violence.  In  1621 
the  Dutch  West  India  Company  was  chartered,  which, 
from  that  time,  or  rather  from  the  time  of  its  approval  by 
the  States- General  in  1623,  exercised  the  control,  as  well 
as  received  the  profits.  The  company  preoccupied  the 
field  by  a  yacht,  sent  out  in  1622,  which  was  followed  by 
the  "  New  Netherland,"  with  a  colony  chiefly  of  Walloons, 
residents  of  Holland  and  Belgium,  of  French  extraction,  in 


48  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

1624.  The  succeeding  year  the  number  of  settlers  was 
two  hundred.  In  1626  Peter  Minuit,  a  native  German  from 
Rhenish  Prussia,  became  director-general.  He  bought 
Manhattan  Island  from  the  Indians  for  twenty-four  dollars. 
A  recent  apologist  suggests  that  if  the  amount  which  that 
represents  now  be  calculated  at  compound  interest  from 
then,  it  will,  after  all,  be  found  not  to  have  been  so  very 
small.  The  advent  of  Minuit  was  distinguished  for  its 
having  introduced  two  "  comforters  of  the  sick,"  Krol  and 
Huyck,  who  held  services  "  in  an  upper  room  in  a  horse- 
mill."  It  is  very  strange  that,  with  all  the  interest  taken 
in  their  history,  the  first  pastorate  had  entirely  vanished 
from  sight  until  the  comparatively  recent  discovery  of  a 
letter  in  Holland,  of  which  a  facsimile  is  printed  in  James 
Grant  Wilson's  "  Memorial  History  of  New  York,"  makes  it 
clear  beyond  a  doubt  that,  1628,  August  1 1,  Jonas  Micha- 
elius  arrived  as  pastor,  and  established  a  form  of  church 
government  with  two  elders,  of  whom  the  director,  Minuit, 
became  one,  and  that  at  the  first  Lord's  Supper  there  were 
fifty  communicants,  Walloons  and  Dutch.  In  1633  there 
was  a  change  both  in  the  directorship  and  the  pastorate, 
Wouter  van  Twiller  succeeding  Minuit,  and  Everardus 
Bogardus,  Michaelius.  The  first  church  was  built  and  the 
first  schoolmaster  began  his  work  the  same  year.  From 
1637,  for  ten  years,  William  von  Kieft  was  director-gen- 
eral. He  was  arbitrary,  grasping,  and  engaged  in  constant 
quarrels  with  the  Indians.  Kieft  was  succeeded  by  the 
last  and  greatest  of  the  director- generals,  Peter  Stuyvesant. 
Whatever  were  his  faults,  he  has  left  his  permanent  impress 
upon  American  history.  He  was  a  truly  heroic  character, 
conscientious,  exacting,  fearless,  prompt  in  making  his  re- 
solves and  persistent  in  executing  them.  The  laws  made 
for  the  colony,  as  he  explained  it,  "  by  God  and  the  Dutch 
West  India  Company,  and  not  by  a  few  ignorant  people," 


PETER   SrUYVESANT.  49 

he  was  determined  to  see  executed ;  the  conveniences  and 
preferences  of  individuals  were  nothing  when  compared 
with  what  he  regarded  the  welfare  of  the  community.  As 
a  consistent  and  uncompromising  Calvinist,  he  believed  that 
highest  welfare  to  be  connected  with  its  religious  life,  as 
regulated  according  to  the  decrees  of  the  Synod  of  Dort. 
Stuyvesant,  the  son  of  a  clergyman,  was  born  in  Holland 
in  1602,  had  been  governor  at  Cura^oa  in  the  West  In- 
dies, and  lost  a  leg  in  a  battle  with  the  Portuguese.  He 
remained  director  until  1664,  when,  after  he  had  made  all 
preparations  for  defending  New  Amsterdam  against  the 
English  until  the  last  extremity,  the  intercessions  of  the 
Dutch  ministers  prevailed  upon  him  to  desist  from  what 
seemed  to  them  to  involve  a  useless  loss  of  life,  and  to 
gracefully  surrender. 

Up  to  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Luther- 
ans do  not  seem  to  have  given  the  authorities  any  trouble. 
But  with  the  increase  of  prosperity  under  Stuyvesant's 
energetic  rule  their  numbers  were  probably  still  growing. 
The  time  came  when  they  felt  that  they  should  no  longer 
be  content  with  attending  the  services  of  their  Reformed 
friends,  but  should  have  the  privilege  of  services  of  their 
own.  Like  their  ancestors  during  the  preceding  century 
in  Holland,  they  were  peaceful,  law-abiding,  and  in  no  way 
aggressive.  They  had  been  waiting  their  time  patiently, 
and  believed  that  it  had  come.  As  their  children  were 
born  they  had  heretofore  brought  them  regularly  to  the 
Reformed  pastors  for  baptism^,  as  was  the  custom  among 
Lutherans  in  Holland  where  there  were  no  Lutheran  pas- 
tors. The  Reformed  Dutch  Order  for  Baptism  of  159 1  had 
required  only  that  parents  and  sponsors  promise  that  the 
child  should  be  instructed  in  the  doctrines  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  and  in  the  creed.  This  formula  the  Synod 
of  Dort  had  revised,  and  connected  with  it  the  obligation 


50  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

to  the  decrees  of  that  synod.  But  even  In  Holland  the 
introduction  of  this  new  regulation  was  very  limited,  and 
in  his  account  of  the  Reformed  Church  given  in  1698  by 
Benthem  in  his  book  on  Holland,  the  formula  of  baptism  is 
the  older,  and  not  the  later  one  of  Dort.  It  was  regarded 
a  better  policy  to  attract  those  of  other  communions  than 
to  repel  them  when  they  offered  their  children.  This  seems 
to  have  been  the  case  also  in  the  New  Netherlands.  But, 
in  accordance  with  Stuyvesant's  principle  that  laws  upon 
the  statute-book  should  be  enforced  as  they  stood,  and 
under  the  advice  of  the  two  prominent  Reformed  pastors, 
who  were  most  staunch  adherents  of  the  most  rigid  form 
of  Calvinism,  the  Lutherans  found  themselves  compelled, 
if  they  would  have  their  children  baptized,  to  answer  the 
questions  of  the  revised  formula.  This  intensified  the 
desire  for  services  and  a  pastor  of  their  own.  As  early  as 
1649  the  Lutherans  at  New  Amsterdam  are  called  a  *'  con- 
gregation "  in  the  minutes  of  the  consistory  at  Amsterdam, 
and  their  petition  for  a  pastor  (October  8th)  is  recorded.^ 
In  1653,  with  characteristic  regard  for  order,  they  pre- 
sented their  petition  to  the  director  of  their  colony.  Again, 
the  two  Reformed  pastors  Megapolensis  and  Drisius  were 
his  advisers,  and  urged  that  no  public  services  but  those  of 
the  Reformed  Church  were  allowable  by  law.  Reformed 
writers  of  the  present  time,  and  the  descendants  of  the  Re- 
formed Dutch  of  the  New  Netherlands,  acknowledge  and 
freely  criticise  this  course  of  the  two  pastors,  who  have 
otherwise  left  a  high  reputation  for  their  devotion  and  fidel- 
ity. Megapolensis,  or  Van  Meklenburg  (born  1601),  had 
been  a  convert  from  Romanism  and  a  missionary  to  the  In- 
dians, and,  by  the  efforts  made  to  save  the  life  of  his  friend. 
Father  Jogues,  the  Jesuit  missionary,  showed  that  he  was 
not  so  illiberal  as  his  course  toward  the  Lutherans  sug- 

1  Rev.  Dr.  J.  Nicum  in  "  Lutlicran  Church  Review,"  vol.  xii.,  p.  182. 


ZAfVS  AGAINST   THE   LUTHERANS.  51 

gested.  Drisius,  who  had  arrived  in  1652,  was  a  German 
by  birth,  had  been  a  chaplain  at  London,  and  had  been 
selected  for  service  in  New  Amsterdam  because,  besides 
the  Dutch,  he  could  preach  in  EngHsh,  French,  and  German. 
The  Lutherans,  in  perplexity  as  to  what  course  to  pursue, 
wrote  to  their  friends  in  Holland,  doubtless  the  consistory 
of  Amsterdam,  to  intercede  for  them  with  the  directors  of 
the  West  India  Company.  The  directors,  while  not  in- 
clined to  force  religious  tests  very  rigidly,  as  they  knew 
that  such  course  could  not  aid  in  the  development  of  the 
colony,  were  unwilling  to  interfere,  but  gave  orders  to 
Stuyvesant  **  to.  employ  all  moderate  exertions  to  lure  them 
to  our  churches,  and  to  matriculate  them  in  the  public  Re- 
formed rehgion."  ^  Private  services  were,  however,  allowed. 
But  Stuyvesant  was  not  satisfied  with  this,  and  at  length, 
in  1656,  found  the  opportunity  for  which  he  was  longing 
to  forbid  even  private  services  in  the  houses  of  Lutherans. 
His  proclamation  threatened  any  one  with  a  penalty  of  one 
hundred  pounds  for  preaching  in  a  Lutheran  service,  and 
twenty-five  pounds  for  attending  one.  Some  of  the  Lu- 
therans were  actually  imprisoned.  But  it  did  no  injury  to 
their  cause.  In  1656  a  congregation  is  said  to  have  ex- 
isted at  Albany.  The  directors  gave  a  mild  reproof  to 
Stuyvesant,  under  date  of  June  14,  1656: 

We  would  have  been  better  pleased  if  you  had  not  published  the  placat 
against  the  Lutherans,  a  copy  of  which  you  sent  us,  and  committed  them 
to  prison ;  for  it  ha§  always  been  our  intention  to  treat  them  quietly  and 
leniently.  Hereafter  you  will  therefore  not  publish  such  or  similar  placats 
without  our  knowledge,  but  you  must  pass  it  over  quietly,  and  let  them  have 
free  religious  exercises  in  their  houses. ^ 

Scarcely  four  months  pass  before,  notwithstanding  this 
reproof,  the  Lutherans,  although  confining  themselves  to 

1  O'Callaghan,  vol.  ii.,  p.  320. 

3  "  Documents  Relating  to  State  of  New  York,"  vol.  xiv.,  p.  351. 


52  THE  LUTHERANS,  [Chap.  ii. 

private  services,  are  again  in  trouble.  On  October  24th 
they  presented  an  appeal,  which  Stuyvesant  referred  to  the 
council  at  New  Amsterdam,  asking  that  their  services  be 
not  interfered  with,  and  stating  that  by  the  next  summer 
they  hoped  to  have  a  regular  clergyman  with  them.  The 
words  of  this  appeal  should  go  into  history : 

We,  the  united  members  of  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession,  here  in 
the  New  Netherlands,  show,  with  all  due  reverence,  how  that  we  have  been 
obedient  to  your  Honor's  prohibitions  and  published  placards,  unwilling  to 
collect  together  in  any  place  to  worship  our  God  with  reading  and  singing, 
although  we  solicited  our  friends  in  our  Fatherland  to  obtain  this  privilege, 
who,  as  our  solicitors,  exerted  themselves  on  our  behalf,  by  the  noble  direc- 
tors of  the  West  India  Company,  our  patroons.  When,  after  their  letters  to 
us,  containing  their  entreaties,  they  obtained  that,  they  resolved  unanimously 
and  concluded  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  might 
be  tolerated  in  the  West  Indies  and  the  New  Netherland,  being  under  their 
direction,  as  is  the  practice  in  our  Fatherland,  under  its  excellent  govern- 
ment. Wherefore,  we  address  ourselves  to  your  Honor,  willing  to  acknowl- 
edge your  Honor,  as  dutiful  and  obedient  servants,  with  prayer  that  you  will 
not  any  longer  interrupt  our  religious  exercises,  which  we,  under  God's  bless- 
ing, are  wishing  to  make  with  reading  and  singing,  till,  as  we  hope  and  ex- 
pect, under  God's  aid,  next  spring,  a  qualified  person  shall  arrive  from  our 
Fatherland  to  instruct  us,  and  take  care  of  our  souls. i 

Upon  the  presentation  of  this  petition  the  council  re- 
solved to  transmit  it  to  the  directors  of  the  West  India 
Company  at  Amsterdam ;  meanwhile  that  **  the  laws  will 
be  enforced  against  conventicles  and  public  meetings  of  any 
but  those  belonging  to  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church."^ 

In  the  summer  of  1657  (June  6th)  the  Lutheran  pastor 
had  arrived.  His  name,  in  printed  documents,  is  generally 
given  as  John  Ernst  Goetwater.  A  recent  examination^ 
of  the  archives  of  the  Lutheran  consistorium  at  Amsterdam 
shows  that   the   name,  as  there  known,  was  Goetwasser. 

1  O'Callaghan,  vol.  ii.,  p.  320. 

2  Catalogue  of  Dutch  MSS.  at  Albany,  under  October  24,  1656. 

3  By  Rev.  Dr.  J.  Nicum  in  summer  of  1892. 


GOETWASSER'S  BANISHMENT.  53 

The  MSS.  at  Albany  spell  his  name  (April  15,  1658)  as 
Cutwater  and  (November  11,  1658)  Gutwasser. 

The  Lutheran  pastor  did  not  receive  the  courtesies  fre- 
quently extended  by  other  clergymen  to  a  new  pastor. 
Some  recent  additions  to  what  has  been  generally  known 
of  him  are  that  he  was  recommended  for  the  place  to  the 
consistory  by  Senior  Paulus  Schrock,  that  he  was  called 
April  3d,  and  examined  and  ordained  April  10,  1657.  In 
the  published  archives  of  the  State  of  New  York  there  is 
an  interesting  letter  from  Megapolensis  and  Drisius,  dated 
August  5,  1657,  in  which  they  recount  "the  injuries  that 
threaten  this  community  by  the  encroachments  of  the 
heretical  spirits,"  and  say: 

It  came  to  pass  that  a  Lutheran  preacher,  Joannes  Ernestus  Goetwater, 
arrived  in  the  ship  the  "  Miil,"  to  the  great  joy  of  the  Lutherans,  and  especial 
discontent  and  disappointment  of  the  congregation  of  this  place ;  yea,  of  the 
whole  land,  even  of  the  English.  .  .  .  We  already  have  the  snake  in  our 
bosom. 

They  beg  that  '*  a  stop  be  put  to  the  work,  which  they 
seem  to  intend  to  push  forward  with  a  hard  Lutheran 
pate,  in  despite  of  and  opposition  to  the  regents."  ^  They 
urged  also  that  the  Lutheran  pastor  be  sent  home  on 
the  same  ship  on  which  he  had  come.  This  was  pre- 
vented by  Goetwasser's  illness.  But  as  soon  as  he  was 
able  it  was  decided,  April  10,  1658,  that  he  must  ''quit 
the  province  and  return  to  Holland."  The  entry  in  the 
summary  of  the  MSS.  at  Albany  reads:  *'  1658,  May  20th. 
Lutheran  minister  and  some  bad  women  sent  back  to  Hol- 
land." The  directors  at  Amsterdam  gave  their  verdict: 
'*  That  you  have  sent  back  here  the  Lutheran  preacher  is 
not  contrary  to,  but  rather  in  accordance  with,  our  good 
intentions,  although  you  might  have  proceeded  less  vigor- 
ously," and  concluded   by  saying  that  the  aim  must   be 

1  "  Doc.  Hist,  of  New  York,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  103. 


54  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

*'  not  to  alienate,  but  rather  attract,  people  of  different  be- 
lief. We  shall  leave  it  to  your  prudence,  and  trust  that 
henceforth  you  will  use  the  least  offensive  and  most  toler- 
ant means,  so  that  people  of  other  persuasions  may  not  be 
deterred  from  the  public  Reformed  Church,  but  in  time  be 
induced  to  listen,  and  finally  gained  to  it."  It  is  probable 
that  Goetwasser  did  not  actually  leave  at  the  time  which, 
according  to  the  above,  seems  clearly  indicated ;  for  ac- 
cording to  a  later  record  of  the  council,  it  is  stated  :  "1658, 
November  i  ith.  Rev.  J.  E.  Gutwasser,  Lutheran  minister, 
to  remain  in  New  Amsterdam  until  otherwise  directed." 

Goetwasser's  mission  was  not  fruitless.  **  For  some 
months  the  Lutherans  enjoyed  the  presence  and  counsels 
of  a  pastor.  He  was  not  allowed  to  hold  public  service, 
but  he  could  not  be  prevented  from  private  personal  min- 
istrations. Not  allowed  to  exercise  his  calling,  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  he  could  even  baptize  their  children,  who  were 
required  by  law  to  be  presented  by  their  parents  at  the 
Reformed  Church,  but  he  could  comfort  and  strengthen 
them.  Watched  as  he  was,  any  infraction  of  the  law  against 
conventicles  would  have  been  vigorously  punished."  1 

The  directors  at  Amsterdam  were  not  satisfied.  They 
required  soon  afterward  the  restoration  of  the  old  formulary 
for  baptism,  thus  eliminating  from  the  promise  conformity 
to  the  decrees  of  Dort.  In  1659  (December  22d)  they  in- 
form the  Reformed  pastors  *'  that  harmony  could  never  be 
preserved  unless  a  too  overbearing  preciseness  be  avoided, 
and  if  they  should  persist  in  their  former  course  the  com- 
pany would  be  obliged  to  allow  the  Lutherans  to  have  a 
separate  church  of  their  own."-  But  Stuyvesant  was  ir- 
repressible. In  1662  he  published  another  proclamation 
against  the  preaching  of  any  other  than  the  Reformed  relig- 

1  Dr.  B.  M.  Schmucker  in  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  210. 

2  Brodhead's  "  History  of  New  York,"  vok  i.,  p.  656. 


LIBERTY  GUARANTEED. 


55 


ion,  *'  either  in  houses,  barns,  ships  or  yachts,  in  the  woods 
or  fields,"  under  penalty  of  fifty  guilders  for  the  first  offense 
*'  on  each  person  found  in  attendance  thereon,  whether  man, 
woman,  or  child,  or  who  shall  provide  accommodations  for 
heretics,  vagabonds,  or  strollers."  ^  But  the  day  of  relief 
for  the  Lutherans  was  at  hand.  It  came  with  the  surrender 
to  the  English  in  1664. 

We  may  add  here  the  words  of  a  very  recent  apologist  for 
those  who  thus  persecuted  the  Lutherans  of  the  New  Nether- 
lands, and  leave  the  reader  to  draw  his  own  inferences : 

It  was  the  arbitrary  spirit  of  the  director,  rather  than  religious  narrowness 
on  the  part  of  the  Dutch,  that  brought  about  such  persecutions  as  occurred 
in  New  Netherland.  Stuyvesant  was  a  devout  member  of  the  Reformed 
Church ;  but  above  all,  he  believed  in  obedience  to  established  authority,  that 
power  was  derived  from  God,  and  that  any  one  who  rejected  the  generally  ac- 
cepted order  of  things  was  a  disturber  of  the  peace,  and  should  be  suppressed. 
When  he  persecuted  a  Lutheran  or  a  Quaker,  it  was  not  so  much  the  religious 
tenet  that  he  attacked,  as  it  was  the  individual  man  who  presumed  to  set  up 
peculiar  views  of  his  own,  and  obstinately  follow  them  out,  when  the  right 
way  had  been  pointed  out  to  him  by  his  superiors. 

In  1654,  when  the  Lutherans  had  become  numerous  enough  to  have  relig- 
ious meetings  of  their  own,  Stuyvesant  issued  a  proclamation  pointing  out 
th^  propriety  of  their  attendance  at  the  regular  Dutch  Church.  What  was 
good  enough  for  the  other  inhabitants  was  good  enough  for  them.  When 
they  tried  to  get  a  meeting-room  for  services,  he  prevented  it.  When  they 
procured  a  minister  from  Holland,  the  director  made  life  so  uncomfortable  for 
him  that  he  left  the  colony.  To  have  one  body  of  nonconformists  at  liberty 
was  to  invite  the  presence  of  others ;  the  idea  was  offensive  to  the  director's 
sense  of  order.  The  Domines,  Megapolensis  and  Drisius,  were  intolerant 
enough  to  support  him.  But  the  Lutherans  appealed  to  Holland,  where  they 
found  relief  in  the  national  spirit  of  liberty.  The  West  India  Company 
blamed  Stuyvesant  for  persecuting  these  people,  on  grounds  of  both  policy 
and  principle.  To  retard  the  growth  and  happiness  of  a  commercial  colony 
on  account  of  a  "  needless  preciseness  "  on  the  sacrament  of  baptism  was 
an  act  of  folly ;  nor  was  it  in  accordance  with  the  Christian  spirit.  So  the 
Lutherans,  who  were  law-abiding  persons,  were  allowed  henceforth  full  lib- 
erty of  worship.  2 

1  O'Callaghan,  vol.  ii.,  p.  454. 

2  "  Peter  Stuyvesant,  Director-General  for  the  West  India  Company  in 
New  Netherland,"  by  Bayard  Tuckerman,  New  York,  1893. 


56  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

English  rule  being  established  in  the  New  Netherlands,  it 
was  placed  under  the  proprietorship  of  the  Duke  of  York, 
who,  even  before  this,  had  claimed  for  himself  Long  Island. 
Five  years  afterward  the  duke  became  a  Roman  Catholic, 
and  in  1685  James  II.  Colonel  Richard  Nicolls,  who  had 
led  the  English  forces  against  New  Amsterdam,  became 
governor,  and  continued  in  office  until  1668.  Under  "the 
Duke's  Laws,"  enacted  in  1665,  "no  persons  were  to  be 
molested,  fined,  or  imprisoned  for  differing  in  matters  of 
religion  who  profess  Christianity,"  and  at  the  same  time  no 
one  was  allowed  to  officiate  as  minister  without  ordination. 
The  new  governor  soon  received  a  request  from  the  Luther- 
ans asking  that  they  be  permitted  to  call  a  minister  from 
Holland,  which  was  cheerfully  granted.  The  policy  of 
Governor  Nicolls  was  as  far  as  possible  to  conciliate  his 
Dutch  subjects.  Hence,  even  in  this  matter  he  found  it 
expedient  to  make  a  special  appeal  to  those  who  had  hith- 
erto been  prejudiced  against  the  Lutherans.  He  did  so  in 
these  words : 

Gentlemen  :  I  have  received  letters  from  the  Duke,  wherein  it  is  particu- 
larly signified  unto  me  that  his  Royall  Highness  doth  approve  of  the  tolera- 
tion given  to  the  Lutheran  Church  in  these  parts.  I  do,  therefore,  expect 
that  you  live  friendly  and  peaceably  with  those  of  that  profession,  giving 
them  no  disturbance  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion,  as  they  shall  receive  no 
countenance  in,  but  on  the  contrary  strictly  answer,  any  disturbance  they 
shall  presume  to  give  unto  any  of  you  in  your  divine  worship.  So  I  bid  you 
farewell,  being 

Your  very  loving  friend, 

Richard  Nicolls. 
Fort  James,  in  New  York, 
this  13th  day  of  October,  1666. 

Nicolls  had  ceased  to  be  governor,  however,  before  the 
Lutherans  received  a  pastor.  Governor  Lovelace  showed 
himself  particularly  friendly,  encouraged  them,  and,  when 
needed,  defended  them  from  the  still  deeply  rooted  prej- 
udices that  had  prevailed  against  them.      A  young  man 


FABRITIUS.  5  7 

called  and  ordained  for  the  place  by  the  consistory  at  Am- 
sterdam delayed  leaving  for  three  years,  and  then  declined. 
A  second  call  was  given,  and  declined.  After  these  disap- 
pointments, a  pastor  at  last  arrived  in  1669,  but  the  result 
was  a  still  greater  disappointment.  His  public  and  private 
life  was  such  as  to  deepen  every  prejudice,  and  to  disgrace 
his  congregation.  The  public  documents  of  those  days,  as 
they  have  been  reprinted,  have  many  records,  giving  the 
details  of  his  quarrels  with  members  of  his  congregations  at 
Albany  and  New  York,  with  his  wife,  from  whom  he* was 
finally  separated,  and  with  the  magistrates,  by  whom  he 
was  repeatedly  arrested.  He  was  not  free  from  the  great 
vice  which  had  prevailed  in  the  colony  during  Stuyvesant's 
days,  when,  notwithstanding  the  legal  measures  taken  against 
the  Lutherans,  the  moral  standard  was  not  rigid  enough  to 
prevent  "  almost  one  full  fourth  part  of  the  town  of  New 
Amsterdam  "  from  being  devoted  to  '*  houses  for  the  sale 
of  brandy,  tobacco,  and  beer."  We  would  be  inclined  to 
pass  over  this  record  in  entire  silence  if  we  had  not  the 
very  best  evidence  that  when  transferred  to  another  field 
he  led  an  entirely  diflferent  life,  and  even  for  years  after  he 
had  become  totally  blind,  served  Swedish  congregations  in 
Delaware  and  Pennsylvania  with  a  fidelity  that  has  won  for 
him  high  testimonials  from  the  Swedish  provost,  Acrehus. 
The  members  of  the  Wicaco  {Gloria  Dei)  congregation 
in  1 69 1  testify  to  his  ''pure  doctrine  and  exemplary  Hfe." 
Let  the  name  of  Jacob  Fabritius  be  associated  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America  with  the  picture 
of  an  old  man,  chastened  by  his  sorrows  and  penitent  over 
the  remembrance  of  his  life  in  New  York,  rowed  in  a  canoe 
from  Kensington,  his  later  residence,  to  his  preaching-places, 
or  led  to  the  pulpit  by  an  attendant,  to  proclaim  in  imper- 
fect Swedish  the  praises  of  the  Saviour  of  sinners  to  the 
sinful  and  tempted,  rather  than  that  presented  to  us  con- 


58  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

cerning  his  earlier  years  in  this  country.  It  is  the  glory 
of  our  holy  religion  that  it  is  its  especial  mission  to  produce 
such  changes.  Fabritius  had  been  sent  by  the  consistory 
of  Amsterdam.  What  had  governed  them  in  the  selec- 
tion, or  whence  the  new  pastor  came,  was  not  known, 
until  an  examination  of  documents  in  1892,  at  Amsterdam, 
showed  that  he  had  previously  been  an  ordained  pastor  at 
Grosglogan  in  Silesia,  who  had  petitioned  the  consistory 
"for  means  to  continue  his  travels."  The  thought  was 
then  suggested  that  he  might  be  the  very  man  who  would 
suit  for  New  Amsterdam.  After  preaching  on  the  first 
Sunday  in  Advent  he  approved  himself  to  them  favorably, 
and  the  notice  of  his  appointment,  together  with  a  copy  of 
the  liturgy  then  in  use  in  the  Lutheran  churches  in  Hol- 
land, was  immediately  forwarded. ^  As  before  noticed,  it 
has  been  the  custom  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Holland 
to  rely  upon  Germany  for  many  of  its  ministers.  It  is  not 
surprising,  therefore,  to  hear  from  Acrelius :  "  He  was  by 
birth  a  German,  or,  as  some  have  thought,  a  Pole."  2  The 
consistory  had  previously  called  two  natives  of  Holland, 
who  had  disappointed  them.  History  deals  in  facts,  not 
in  surmises.  But  we  may  suggest  to  future  investigators 
the  inquiry  as  to  whether  the  precise  identity  of  his  name 
with  that  of  Jacob  Fabricius,  the  German  court-preacher  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  who  put  into  meter  the  prose  of  the 
hymn  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  "  Fear  not,  O  little  flock,  the 
foe,"  and  died  in  1654,  as  general  superintendent  in  Stet- 
tin in  Pomerania,  and  the  readiness  of  this  Jacob  Fabritius 
(the  second)  to  go  to  the  Swedes,  when  his  services  could 
no  longer  be  rendered  in  New  York,  and  in  whose  language 
he  could  at  once  preach,  may  not  indicate  a  near  relation- 
ship.    After  being  suspended  and  restored  to  the  exercise 

1  Rev.  Dr.  Nicum  in  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  xii.,  p.  184. 

2  "  History  of  New  Sweden"  (translation),  p.  177. 


ARENSWS. 


59 


of  his  office  by  the  governor  a  number  of  times,  the  con- 
gregation at  New  York  finally  petitioned  the  consistory  at 
Amsterdam  in  1670  for  the  removal  of  Fabritius  and  the 
appointment  of  a  new  pastor. 

Before  the  change  could  be  effected  a  church  building 
was  erected.  Martin  Hoof  man  was  sent  in  1671  to  the 
Lutherans  on  the  Delaware  to  obtain  aid  from  them.  His 
passport  begins : 

Whereas  the  ministers  and  officers  of  the  Church  of  the  Augustane  Confes- 
sion or  Lutheran  congregation,  in  this  city,  under  the  protection  of  his  Roy- 
all  Highness,  the  Duke  of  Yorke,  have  requested  my  license  to  build  and 
erect  a  house  for  their  church  to  meet  in,  toward  the  which  they  do  suppose 
all  or  most  of  their  profession  will  in  some  measure  contribute,  .  .  .  they 
have  pitcht  upon  Martin  Hoofman  to  negotiate  there  for  them. 

But  when  erected,  the  division  in  the  congregation  con- 
cerning the  disposition  to  be  made  of  Fabritius  caused  legal 
proceedings  to  be  entered  for  the  payment  of  some  of  the 
subscriptions.  It  stood  beyond  the  fortifications  of  the 
city,  and  was  demoHshed  in  1673,  when  the  Dutch  returned 
to  power  for  a  year,  the  congregation  receiving  due  com- 
pensation for  it. 

Fabritius  obtained  permission  to  preach  his  farewell  ser- 
mon and  install  his  successor  at  the  same  time,  August  1 1, 
1 67 1.  Bernardus  Arensius,  whose  pastorate  extended  un- 
til the  last  decade  of  the  century,  is  described  as  "  a  gentle 
personage  and  of  a  very  agreeable  behavior" — probably 
a  quiet,  industrious  pastor,  of  whom  there  is  little  record, 
because  he  was  so  intent  upon  his  work.  He  devoted  his 
summers  to  the  congregation  in  New  York,  and  his  winters 
to  that  in  Albany.  In  1686  there  were  but  four  clergy- 
men in  the  city  of  New  York.  *'  New  York,"  says  a  con- 
temporary record,  "  has  first  a  chaplain  belonging  to  the 
fort,  of  the  Church  of  England;   secondly,  a  Dutch  Cal- 


5o  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  il. 

vinist;  thirdly,  a  French  Calvinist;  fourthly,  a  Dutch 
Lutheran."! 

An  amusing  incident  is  told  by  Rev.  Charles  Wolley, 
rector  of  the  English,  now  Trinity,  Church  in  1679,  con- 
cerning a  successful  attempt  which  he  made  to  promote  a 
more  friendly  feeling  between  the  Lutheran  and  the  Re- 
formed Dutch  pastor,  Van  Niewenhuysen.  Mr.  Wolley 
states  that  he  was  on  intimate  terms  with  both,  while  they 
were  not  on  visiting,  and  barely  on  speaking,  terms  with 
each  other.  He  planned,  therefore,  a  surprise,  and  invited 
them  both,  with  their  wives,  to  supper.  Their  astonish- 
ment was  great  on  being  brought  thus  together,  but  at  the 
table  the  embarrassment  wore  off,  and  they  had  a  delight- 
ful evening,  in  honor  of  the  host  conversing  entirely  in  Lat- 
in, *'  which,"  he  says,  ^'  they  spoke  so  fluently  and  promptly, 
that  I  blushed  at  myself,  with  a  passionate  regret  that  I 
could  not  keep  pace  with  them."^  Wolley  was  a  Cam- 
bridge graduate. 

The  pastorate  of  Arensius  covered  a  very  trying  period 
in  the  history  of  New  York.  The  war  between  England 
and  Holland  kept  the  colony  disquieted  and  prostrated 
trade.  The  colony  itself  was  the  scene  of  two  changes  of 
rule,  as  it  passed  from  the  English  into  the  hands  of  the 
Dutch  in  1673,  and  was  restored  in  1674.  The  first  Eng- 
lish governor  after  the  restoration  of  English  rule,  Andros, 
was  intensely  unpopular  and  oppressive.  The  spirit  of 
revolt  against  his  authority  was  constantly  breaking  out. 
Under  the  lieutenant-governor,  BrockhoUs,  who  adminis- 
tered affairs  temporarily,  and  his  successor,  Governor  Don- 
gan,  there  was  constant  chafing.  The  succession  of  the 
Duke  of  York  to  the  throne  as  James  H.,  and  his  aggress- 
iveness  in   the   interests  of   the  Roman  CathoHc  Church, 

1  "  Doc.  History,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  415. 

2  Quoted  in  Tuckerman's  "  Peter  Stuyvesant,"  p.  158. 


A    LONG    VACANCY.  6 1 

caused  much  disquiet.  Open  rebellion  broke  out  when  the 
attempt  was  made  to  consolidate  all  the  northern  colonies, 
to  extend  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  over  them,  and  to 
require  all  schoolmasters  to  obtain  from  him  their  license ; 
especially  when  the  unpopular  Andros  returned  to  New 
York,  as  governor-in-chief  and  captain-general.  The  ex- 
ample of  what  was  occurring  in  England  suggested  the 
remedy.  If  James  II.  was  supplanted  by  William  of  Or- 
ange, why  should  not  a  Protestant  assume  authority  in 
New  York?  Jacob  Leister,  a  native  of  Frankfort  on  the 
Main,  became  dictator  of  New  York  in  1689.  After  vari- 
ous events,  keeping  the  entire  colony  excited  for  two  years, 
Leister  was  hanged.  May  15,  1691. 

The  year  of  Leister's  execution  was  that  of  the  death  of 
Arensius.^  This  was  followed  by  a  vacancy  in  the  pastor- 
ate at  New  York  and  Albany  for  ten  years.  The  vitality 
of  Lutheranism  was  sorely  tried  by  such  neglect.  For 
five  years  nothing  is  heard  of  the  congregation ;  then  they 
appeal  to  Amsterdam,  but  plead  their  inability  to  support 
a  pastor.  They  must  have  help  from  abroad.  The  Am- 
sterdam authorities  insist  that  as  they  have  been  furnished 
already  with  two  pastors  they  must  bear  the  responsibility 
for  the  third.  At  last  they  are  forced  to  pledge  a  salary ; 
but  even  then  they  receive  no  aid.  The  relief  they  do  not 
find  in  their  fatherland  comes  from  America  itself.  This 
brings  us  to  the  consideration  of  the  second  element  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  this  country  during  the  seventeenth 
century — the  Swedes  on  the  Delaware. 

J  Grabner,  vol.  i.,  p.  71. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    LUTHERAN    CHURCH    IN    SWEDEN. 

The  history  of  the  Reformation  in  Sweden  presents  a 
very  striking  contrast  with  that  in  either  Germany,  Hol- 
land, or  England.  The  German  Reformation  was  a  popu- 
lar movement,  cherished  and  promoted  from  literary  cen- 
ters, advanced  under  the  leadership  and  with  the  earnest 
cooperation  of  a  considerable  portion  of  the  clergy,  and 
protected  by  some  of  the  most  influential  princes  of  the 
empire.  It  originated  and  proceeded  without  any  pre- 
conceived plan,  from  the  necessities  and  impulses  of  the 
Christian  life.  The  results  were  far  difl"erent  and  more 
extensive  than  those  which  were  in  the  minds  of  the  men 
who,  from  constraint  of  conscience,  were  compelled  to 
speak  and  act.  The  Reformation  in  Holland  difi"ered 
from  that  in  Germany  by  the  uniform  opposition,  instead 
of  the  partial  encouragement,  received  from  those  in  au- 
thority. The  English  Reformation  was  only  to  a  limited 
extent  a  popular  movement.  It  proceeded  almost  entirely 
from  the  universities,  and  was  retarded,  instead  of  ad- 
vanced, by  the  professed  alliance  of  an  unprincipled  king, 
who  checked  its  progress  by  his  iron  will,  and  turned  the 
vantage-ground  it  had  gained  to  account  in  advancing  his 
personal  interests  against  the  papacy.  Unlike  these,  the 
Swedish  Reformation  began  with  the  king,  who  stopped 
short  of  nothing  but  the  entire  reformation  in  doctrine  and 
worship  of  the  church  in  his  kingdom,  and  by  his  indomi- 
table energy  reached  his  end  against  the  strong  opposition 

62 


GUSTAVUS    VASA.  63 

of  the  clergy.  It  had  its  pohtical  side,  as  the  most  effect- 
ual assertion  and  defense  of  Swedish  independence  against 
the  claims  of  Denmark  and  the  persevering  machinations 
of  a  Danish  party  in  Sweden,  powerfully  sustained  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Upsala,  who  came  from  a  Danish  family, 
and  most  of  the  other  ecclesiastics.  The  deposition  of 
the  archbishop,  the  papal  bann  against  Sweden,  and  the 
massacre  of  Stockholm,  November  8,  1520,  where  two 
bishops,  several  state  counselors,  and  other  prominent  per- 
sons who  were  supporters  of  Sweden's  claims  against  Den- 
mark were  slain,  and  other  murders,  amounting  in  all  to 
six  hundred  throughout  the  kingdom,  led  in  1523  to  the 
election  to  the  throne  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  the  son  of  one  of 
the  murdered  state  counselors.  During  the  reign  of  ter- 
ror in  Sweden,  Gustavus,  who  had  been  imprisoned  as  a 
hostage  in  Denmark  and  had  escaped,  was  residing  in 
northern  Germany,  at  Liibeck;  and  although  even  at 
Liibeck  the  Reformation  did  not  enter  until  a  later  period, 
and  Manfuss  and  Osenbriigge  were  in  prison  during  his 
stay  there,  serving  a  portion  of  their  sentence  of  three 
years,  for  having  preached  the  evangelical  doctrine,  Gus- 
tavus learned  to  know  what  the  Reformation  meant  and 
to  sympathize  with  it  in  many  of  its  principles  and  ends. 
When  his  efforts  to  secure  the  independence  and  welfare 
of  his  kingdom  were  met  by  the  constant  opposition  and 
plots  of  the  clergy,  the  crisis  was  precipitated.  An  eccle- 
siastical organization  could  no  longer  be  maintained  to 
direct  its  efforts  against  the  state  whence  it  derived  sup- 
port. A  still  higher  motive  probably  prompted  him  as  an 
individual ;  but  thi^  was  all  that  as  ruler  he  had  to  regard. 
He  saw  that  mere  restraint  placed  upon  the  clergy  was 
not  sufficient ;  a  thorough  reformation  such  as  was  pro- 
ceeding in  Germany  would  be  required.  The  disloyalty 
of  the  Swedish  clergy  had  its  root  in  abuses  which  could 


64  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  hi. 

be  remedied  by  no  superficial  remedy.  They  would  not 
cease  to  be  scheming  politicians  until  they  realized  the 
nature  of  the  work  that  belonged  to  them  as  spiritual 
guides.  But  even  to  this  conviction  Gustavus  did  not 
come  suddenly. 

Two  sons  of  a  Swedish  blacksmith,  Olaf  and  Lars  Petri 
(Peterson),  on  the  way  from  their  native  town,  Oerebro, 
to  the  **  House  of  St.  Bridget,"  a  Swedish  hospice  in 
Rome,  to  prepare  for  the  priesthood,  were  diverted  from 
their  purpose  w^iile  passing  through  Germany  by  the  fame 
of  the  recently  founded  University  of  Wittenberg,  and 
for  several  years  became  diligent  scholars  of  Luther  and 
Melanchthon.  They  received  their  master's  degree  at 
Wittenberg,  and  Olaf  Petri  accompanied  Luther  in  a  vis- 
itation to  the  Augustinian  cloisters  in  Meissen  and  Thu- 
ringia.  Returning  home  in  15  19,  their  vessel  was  wrecked 
on  the  island  of  Gothland,  and  in  the  city  of  Visby  Olaf 
successfully  withstood  the  claims  of  a  seller  of  indulgences. 
The  next  year  Olaf  became  secretary  to  Bishop  Matthias 
of  Strengnas,  who  was  favorably  inclined  toward  a  ref- 
ormation; and,  as  a  canon  and  deacon  in  the  cathedral, 
by  his  sermons  and  lectures  on  the  Bible  reproducing 
what  he  had  heard  at  Wittenberg,  excited  much  interest. 
Accompanying  the  bishop  to  Stockholm,  both  brothers 
narrowly  escaped  with  their  lives  on  that  fatal  November 
day  in  1520,  when  the  bishop  was  one  of  the  victims. 
The  administration  of  the  diocese  of  Strengnas  fell,  by  the 
death  of  the  bishop,  into  the  hands  of  the  already  aged 
archdeacon  Lawrence  Andreas  (Anderson),  a  man  of  con- 
ceded natural  gifts,  extensive  learning,  wide  travel,  and 
remarkable  eloquence.  From  Olaf  Petri  he  learned  fully 
what  Luther  was  teaching,  and  became  a  most  hearty  ad- 
vocate of  the  cause.  So  ignorant  were  the  majority  of 
the  Swedish  clergy  of  the  real  contents  of  Luther's  doc- 


OLAF  PETRI.  65 

trine,  that  it  is  related  that  so  high  an  authority  as  the 
Bishop  of  Linkoping  actually  regarded  the  movement  as 
in  the  interests  of  the  Greek  Church,  and  not  only  advised 
that  especial  care  should  be  taken  in  the  appointment  of 
bishops  on  the  Russian  frontier,  but  also,  to  guard  against 
the  danger,  wrote  a  little  book  against  that  church. 

At  the  Diet  of  Strengnas,  where  Gustavus  was  elected 
king,  Olaf  Petri  declared  himself  in  a  series  of  sermons  an 
opponent  of  the  Roman  Church,  especially  attacking  its 
abuses,  and  declaring  that  they  were  departures  from  the 
true  doctrine  of  the  Swedish  Church,  taught  by  its  founder, 
Ansgar.  This  courageous  attack  did  not  pass  unnoticed. 
Complaints  were  made  to  the  king.  Olaf  Petri  and  Andreae 
were  summoned  to  his  presence.  He  assured  the  latter 
confidentially  of  his  sympathy  with  them,  although  for  the 
present  prudence  dictated  that  it  should  not  be  known. 
He  confirmed  this  by  appointing  Andreae  his  chancellor, 
Olaf  Petri  chief  preacher  at  Stockholm,  and  his  brother 
Lawrence  professor  of  theology  at  Upsala.  As  the  diet 
which  elected  him  king  laid  contributions  for  the  support 
of  the  government  upon  certain  revenues  belonging  to  the 
churches  and  cloisters,  when  the  king  urged  that  they  be 
collected  he  met  resistance  from  several  of  the  bishops. 
Knut,  Archbishop  of  Upsala,  and  Sumanwader,  Bishop  of 
Westeras,  after  due  legal  process,  were  deposed  on  the 
charge  of  conspiring  against  the  king.  Fleeing  to  Nor- 
way, they  were  surrendered  to  the  Swedish  authorities, 
and,  after  regular  judicial  trial,  executed  for  treason  in 
February,  1527.  John  Magnus,  a  native  of  Sweden,  and 
the  pope's  legate  in  that  country,  was  appointed  arch- 
bishop, and  the  appointment  was  confirmed  by  Pope 
Adrian.  While  the  great  caution  of  Gustavus  was  post- 
poning the  conflict  until  the  proper  time  should  come  for 
his  coronation,  Olaf  Petri  was  continuing  with  unabated 


66  THE  LUTHERANS,  [Chap.  iit. 

ardor  to  inveigh  against  the  papacy  and  its  doctrines,  until 
the  populace  were  excited  by  his  violence  to  attack  the 
church  in  which  he  preached.  An  Anabaptist  outbreak 
under  Melchior  King  and  Knipperdolling  gave  the  en- 
emies of  the  Reformation  an  opportunity  to  lay  its  ex- 
cesses to  the  charge  of  the  Swedish  Reformers.  In  a 
royal  visitation  made  through  all  the  provinces  of  his 
kingdom,  in  order  to  form  the  acquaintance  of  his  people, 
Gustavus  everywhere  disarmed  opposition  and  won  their 
affection.  He  insisted  that  the  dissatisfied  clergy  should 
faithfully  perform  their  duties,  while  the  two  ardent  Evan- 
gelical preachers  were  counseled  to  mildness  and  modera- 
tion. All  abuse  of  Catholic  bishops  and  the  saints  honored 
by  the  people  was  forbidden.  Concessions  were  to  be 
made  on  all  matters  not'  pertaining  to  the  foundations  of 
the  faith.  Good  works  were  to  be  preached  as  the  neces- 
sary consequences  of  faith.  In  church  usages  no  arbitrary 
changes  were  to  be  made,  particularly  in  those  which  con- 
stantly met  the  eyes  of  the  people. 

In  1524  Gustavus  provided  for  a  public  disputation  at 
Upsala,  between  Olaf  Petri  representing  the  Evangelical 
and  Peter  Galle  representing  the  Scholastic  theology.  In 
the  presence  of  the  king,  the  state  counselors,  and  a  large 
audience,  they  discussed  the  questions  of  ''justification," 
''  the  forgiveness  of  sins  through  papal  indulgences,"  ''  the 
influence  of  the  free  will  upon  the  confession  of  man," 
'*  the  merit  of  good  works,"  the  ''papal  traditions,"  es- 
pecially "  masses  for  the  dead,"  "  the  invocation  of  saints," 
"pilgrimages,"  "purgatory,"  "indulgences,"  "the  Lord's 
Supper  under  one  form.,"  "celibacy  of  the  clergy,"  and 
their  "temporal  power."  Both  were  required  to  write 
out  the  grounds  of  their  attacks  and  the  answers. 

In  1525  Olaf  Petri  administered  the  Lord's  Supper  in 
Swedish  and  married.     The  king  received  from  the  Bishop 


DIET  OF   WESTER  AS.  67 

of  Lidkoping  a  severe  reprimand  for  his  presence  at  the 
wedding.  Shortly  after,  Archbishop  Magnus  informed 
him  of  his  entire  independence  of  the  king,  as  he  derived 
his  confirmation  -n  office  from  the  pope.  Making  the  vis- 
itations throughout  his  diocese,  with  a  large  retinue  and  a 
great  display,  he  was  summoned  in  1526  to  Stockholm, 
and  informed  that  the  office  of  a  bishop  consisted  not  in 
o.utward  display,  but  in  preaching  the  divine  Word. 

Meanwhile,  the  chancellor  Andrcce  had  published  in 
1526  a  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  of  great  excel- 
lence, into  Swedish,  and  the  brothers  Petri  had  begun  the 
translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  was  completed  in 

1541- 

The  archbishop  in  1526  left  Sv/eden  for  Rome,  never 
to  return.  In  spite  of  the  determined  opposition  of  the 
Bishop  of  Lidkoping,  the  Diet  of  Westeras  in  1527  estab- 
lished the  Lutheran  faith  in  Sweden.  It  subjected  the 
power  of  the  bishops  entirely  to  that  of  the  king.  It  ex- 
pressly decided  that  the  king  can  depose  unfit  priests  from 
their  congregations,  and  appoint  more  suitable  ones  in 
their  places,  especially  when  the  bishops  do  not  attend  to 
their  duty ;  that  he  should  have  full  power  to  rule  the 
churches  and  cloisters  and  to  provide  for  their  necessary 
support.^  The  Roman  Catholic  religion  was  not  sup- 
pressed; some  features  of  its  government  and  rites  still 
remained  ;  but  their  early  complete  abandonment  was  ren- 
dered certain.  The  pope's  authority  was  over,  even  though 
among  the  bishops  and  in  all  the  estates  he  still  had  ardent 
supporters.  All  this  had  been  accomplished  without  vio- 
lence, constrained  solely  by  the  ultimatum  of  the  king, 
that  unless  this  were  done  he  would  lay  down  his  office. 

This  was  followed  by  the  **  Church  Assembly  of  the 
Swedish  Clergy"  at  Oerebro  in  1529,  in  which  Lawrence 

1  Schrockh,  vol.  ii.,  p.  42 


68  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  in. 

Andreae,  Archdeacon  of  Upsala,  presiding  over  the  vacant 
archbishopric  as  the  representative  of  the  king,  the  bishops 
of  Skara,  Strengnas,  and  Westeriis,  preachers  from  all  the 
dioceses,  and  even  monks,  united  in  an  obligation  to 
preach  the  pure  Word  of  God,  and  to  give  instruction  in 
the  cathedral  schools,  together  with  other  regulations  look- 
ing to  a  reform  of  abuses. 

The  same  year  Olaf  Petri  published  a  *'  Handbook  for 
Divine  Service,"  comprising  orders  for  baptism,  the  Lord's 
Supper,  marriage,  burial.  By  the  king's  direction,  indiffer- 
ent matters,  such  as  the  use  of  salt  and  the  exorcism  in 
baptism,  were  retained,  in  order  that  the  people  who  were 
accustomed  to  them  might  not  be  unnecessarily  offended. 
If  extreme  unction  be  requested,  the  sick  person  is  to 
be  instructed  that  it  is  unnecessary,  since  the  anointing 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  through  the  forgiveness  of  sins  is 
sufficient.  But  if  he  still  persist,  he  is  to  be  warned  that 
it  is  no  sacrament.  The  Lord's  Supper  is  to  be  pre- 
ceded by  a  public  confession,  which  the  congregation 
should  repeat  after  the  pastor.  \\\  order  not  to  give 
offense  he  should  take  the  hosts,  and  then  the  cup,  in  his 
hands  while  repeating  the  words  of  institution,  but,  lest 
this  should  be  misinterpreted,  he  should  place  them  again 
to  the  side.^ 

Lawrence  Petri  in  1531  was  elected  the  first  Evangel- 
ical archbishop,  at  an  assembly  of  the  bishops  and  chief 
clergy  of  Sweden.  He  surpassed  his  elder  brother,  Olaf, 
in  mildness  and  learning,  whom,  without  being  so  promi- 
nent, he  most  frequently  led.  He  is  said  in  his  career  as 
a  professor  to  have  combined  the  traits  of  his  two  great 
teachers,  Luther  and  Melanchthon,  and  by  the  qualities  of 
his  style  as  a  writer  to  have  earned  the  designation  of 
"the  Swedish  Cicero."     When  he  became  archbishop  he 

1  Schrockh,  ibid.^  p.  49. 


GEORGE  NORMANN.  69 

was  only  thirty- two  years  of  age,  and  continued  in  the 
office  for  forty  years. 

For  ten  years  Gustavus  had  postponed  the  election  of 
an  archbishop.  He  soon  gave  clear  proof  of  the  fact  that 
he  considered  himself  charged  with  a  responsibility  for  the 
Church  of  Sweden  above  that  committed  to  the  bishops. 
In  1539  Olaf  Petri  came  into  trouble  by  personally  attack- 
ing the  king  in  a  sermon,  afterward  printed,  for  setting 
his  people  a  bad  example  in  the  use  of  language  which 
the  faithful  but  indiscreet  preacher  regarded  profane.  The 
consequence  was  that  the  archbishop  was  directed  to  see  to 
it  that  no  reform  should  be  attempted  without  the  king's 
command,  and  nothing  printed  without  the  king's  ap- 
proval. This  asserted  emphatically  the  claims  of  the  king 
as  summus  episcopns.  But  a  still  greater  conflict  came 
when,  the  next  year,  both  Olaf  and  the  chancellor,  Law- 
rence Andreae,  were  tried  for  not  having  divulged  a  plot 
against  the  king's  life,  which  they  had  learned  in  the  con- 
fessional, and  both  were  condemned  to  death,  but  were 
finally  pardoned,  under  humiliating  conditions  which  im- 
poverished them  for  life. 

George  Normann,  a  Wittenberg  master  of  arts,  whom 
Luther  had  recommended  in  1539  as  ''a  man  of  holy  Hfe, 
modest,  sincere,  and  learned,  and  in  every  way  qualified 
and  worthy  of  being  tutor  to  the  king's  son,"  was  ap- 
pointed superintendent  of  all  the  clergy — including  the 
bishops — of  the  kingdom.  Under  him  religious  counsel- 
ors {conservatorcs  rcligionis)  were  appointed,  who  accom- 
panied him  in  his  visitation  of  churches,  and  examined 
and,  with  the  royal  approval,  removed  and  appointed  pas- 
tors. An  ecclesiastical  assembly  of  state  counselors  and 
bishops  in  1540  decided  that  Roman  ceremonies  hereto- 
fore allowed  should  be  entirely  abolished,  and  others  of  an 
evangelical  character  be  substituted,  and  that  care  should 


70        •  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  hi. 

be  henceforth  taken  that  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel  be 
taught  in  their  purity.  The  Reformation,  however,  did 
not  thoroughly  penetrate  the  people  during  the  reign  of 
Gustavus  ;  their  prejudices  were  in  favor  of  the  old  usages  ; 
and  there  were  frequent  serious  indications  of  discontent, 
of  which  the  rebellion  of  Nils  Dacke  in  Smaland  in  1542, 
with  its  avowed  purpose  as  the  reestablishment  of  Chris- 
tianity and  the  abolition  of  the  Swedish  mass,  was  the  most 
formidable, 

Gustavus  dying  in  1560,  a  reaction  came  under  his 
second  son,  John  III.  (1568-92),  who,  influenced  by  his 
queen,  sought  the  restoration  of  Roman  Catholicism  in  a 
modified  form ;  and  the  archbishop  yielded  in  so  far  as  to 
undertake  in  1571  a  revision  of  the  **  Church  Order,"  with 
the  insertion  of  statements  of  the  same  character  that,  for 
the  sake  of  peace,  Melanchthon  had  approved  in  the  Leip- 
zig Interim  of  1548.  His  successor  of  the  same  name, 
but  distinguished  from  him  only  by  the  surname  "  Gothus  " 
(1573),  threw  all  his  energy  into  the  Catholicizing  move- 
ment. Jesuit  influence  was  active.  They  saw  to  it  that  the 
schools  were  provided  with  their  teachers,  and  that  Cath- 
olic literature  was  disseminated.  Two  seminaries  were 
established  at  Rome  for  the  instruction  of  Swedish  youth. 
The  catechism  of  Canisius  was  widely  introduced.  A  new 
liturgy  was  prepared  by  the  king  and  his  secretary,  Fecht, 
in  1576,  almost  entirely  excluding  all  Lutheran  elements. 
Negotiations  were  in  progress  between  the  pope  and  the 
king  for  submission  of  the  kingdom  to  the  authority  of  the 
former. 

But  the  movement  had  gone  too  far.  The  pope  was 
too  exacting  in  his  demands ;  the  zeal  of  the  king  was 
chilled ;  his  popish  wife  died ;  the  Swedish  lady  who 
succeeded  her  in  1583  was  of  another  mind;  the  Jesuits 
were  expelled ;   the  Romanism  of  the  later  years  of  John 


THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC    REACTION.  71 

was  confined  to  the  liturgy  on  whose  use  he  still  laid  great 
stress.  The  conflict  had  been  necessary  in  order  to  bring 
the  latent  Lutheranism  of  the  kingdom  to  a  decision.  It  had 
now  more  thoroughly  pervaded  the  people,  because  of  the 
very  efforts  to  force  them  in  another  direction,  and  the  hu- 
miliating conditions  urged  by  the  papacy  and  its  advocates. 

When,  on  the  death  of  John  (1592),  his  Catholic  son, 
Sigismund  of  Poland,  was  about  to  succeed  to  the  throne, 
there  was  a  general  demand  that  this  should  occur  only 
with  the  provision  that  the  rights  of  Protestantism  should 
be  guaranteed  in  the  most  unmistakable  way.  Charles, 
the  brother  of  John  and  youngest  son  of  Gustavus,  during 
all  these  occurrences  had  kept  one  district  of  Sweden 
faithful  to  his  father's  principles,  and  had  provided  there 
a  refuge  for  those  who  had  been  forced,  for  their  fidelity 
to  their  evangelical  convictions,  to  leave  the  territory  over 
which  the  king  had  more  absolute  control.  As  regent, 
convening  an  ecclesiastical  council  at  Upsala,  by  its  decree 
of  March  20,  1593,  the  Swedish  Reformation  was  firmly 
established,  and,  by  a  clear  confessional  basis,  assumed  a 
more  definite  and  permanent  form  than  under  Gustavus. 

The  Decree  of  Upsala  affirms  that  the  Holy  Scriptures 
declare  completely  everything  belonging  to  Christian  doc- 
trine ;  that  no  explanations  of  the  fathers  not  in  harmony 
therewith  are  to  be  admitted ;  that  no  man  shall  be  al- 
lowed to  explain  the  Holy  Scriptures  according  to  his  own 
mind ;  that  the  Apostles',  Nicene,  and  Athanasian  creeds 
and  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  are  the  symbols 
of  the  Swedish  Church ;  that  the  liturgy  of  King  John, 
"  in  doctrine,  ceremonies,  and  discipline,"  is  unanimously 
disapproved  and  repudiated,  and  that  a  return  be  made 
to  the  liturgy  of  1572,  except  that  the  effort  be  made  to 
gradually  abolish  certain  of  its  ceremonies,  as  *'  the  use 
of  salt,  candles,  the  elevation  of  the  host,"  etc.  ;   that  all 


72  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  hi. 

"popish  doctrines,"  Zwinglianism,  Calvinism,  and  Ana- 
baptism  are  condemned;  that  church  discipline  be  more 
faithfully  maintained ;  and  that  public  meetings  of  those 
holding  heretical  doctrines  should  not  be  allowed.^ 

Although  the  young  king,  feeling  that  he  could  not  do 
otherwise,  conceded  all  these  claims,  and  under  these  con- 
ditions secured  his  throne,  the  people  resented  the  first 
indications  of  efforts  on  his  part  to  gain  for  Catholicism 
what  had  been  lost,  with  the  result  that,  after  long- con- 
tinued warning  and  remonstrance,  he  was  deposed  by  a 
diet  in  the  year  1602,  and  two  years  later  his  uncle  be- 
came Charles  IX.,  and  as  king,  in  1607,  confirmed  the  De- 
cree of  Upsala.  He  was  succeeded  in  161 1  by  his  son, 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  one  of  the  grandest  and  noblest 
characters  in  history,  who  laid  down  his  life  on  the  field 
of  Liitzen  in  1632,  to  live  forever  in  the  grateful  memory 
of  succeeding  generations,  as,  under  God,  the  deliverer  of 
Lutheran  Protestantism  in  the  hour  of  its  greatest  peril. 
During  the  minority  of  his  daughter,  Christina,  the  country 
was  ably  administered  by  the  great  statesman  Oxenstiern ; 
and  under  the  rule  of  Christina,  from  1644,  continued  to 
flourish,  until  by  the  Peace  of  Westphalia,  in  1648,  a  large 
addition  of  territory,  including  most  of  Pomerania,  was  ac- 
quired from  Germany.  Throughout  the  seventeenth  cent- 
ury Sweden  was  one  of  the  greatest  powers  in  Europe, 
and  it  has  been  well  said  that  "  during  this  period  no  deci- 
sion was  arrived  at  by  any  European  state  without  refer- 
ence to  her  wishes."  This  is  the  period  of  the  founding 
of  the  Swedish  colony  on  the  banks  of  the  Delaware. 

The  confessional  position  taken  by  the  Decree  of  Upsala, 
pledging  the   Swedish  Church   to   the   three   oecumenical 

1  See  English  translation  by  Professor  Petri,  in  "Book  of  Concord" 
(Jacobs,  Philadelphia,  1883),  vol.  ii.,  pp.  304-307. 


CONFESSIONAL  BASIS.  73 

creeds  and  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession,  was  sup- 
plemented in  1686  so  as  to  read: 

In  our  kingdom  and  in  the  lands  belonging  thereto,  all  shall  confess  only 
and  alone  the  Christian  doctrine  and  faith,  which  is  founded  upon  the  Pro- 
phetical and  Apostolical  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  is 
comprised  in  the  three  chief  symbols,  the  Apostles',  the  Nicene,  and  the 
Athanasian,  as  well  as  in  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession,  composed  in 
the  year  1530,  received  in  1593  in  the  Council  of  Upsala,  and  explained  in 
the  entire  so-called  "  Book  of  Concord."  All  those  who  enter  into  office  as 
teachers  in  churches,  academies,  gymnasiums,  or  schools  shall  at  their  ordi- 
nation, or  when  they  receive  a  degree,  be  bound  by  an  oath  to  this  doctrine 
and  this  confession  of  faith.  1 

This  was  simply  a  more  formal  statement  of  what  had 
been  provided  already  in  a  decree  of  August  14,  1663.^ 
This  is  of  importance  as  determining  the  confessional  posi- 
tion of  those  who  labored  under  the  Swedish  Church  in 
America  during  that  period.  It  is  interesting  to  note,  in 
view  of  more  recent  relations,  that  in  1809  it  was  decided 
that  the  king,  as  sumimis  episcopus,  should  be  obligated 
only  to  the  three  oecumenical  creeds  and  the  Unaltered 
Augsburg  Confession,  and  that,  in  1829,  the  ministerial 
oath  was  made  to  correspond  with  that  of  the  king;  but 
that  these  provisions  were  not  intended  to  render  the  doc- 
trinal basis  of  the  Swedish  Church  difi'erent  from  that  of 
1686,  which  still  remains  in  force. 

The  Swedish  Church  is  distinguished  for  its  thoroughly 
organized  form  of  church  government.  This  has  originated 
not  in  any  scheme  devised  in  the  Reformation  period,  but 
by  the  free  development  of  its  life  according  to  necessities. 
To  adequately  appreciate  it  would  require  the  previous 
study  of  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  its  pre-Reforma- 
tion  organization.      The  Reformers  were  content  to  avail 

1  Stahelin,  in  Herzog-Plitt,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  741;   Wigger,  vol.  ii.,  p.  397. 

2  Knos,  p.  72. 


74  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  iil. 

themselves  of  the  old  forms  just  as  they  were,  except 
where  these  forms  antagonized  the  chief  end  of  the  Refor- 
mation, or,  in  course  of  time,  were  found  insufficient  for  the 
new  life.  The  gradual  development  of  the  organization  is 
the  product  of  the  various  historical  factors  that  have  en- 
tered into  the  religious  life  of  Sweden  during  the  whole 
period.  It  clearly  shows  both  the  centralizing  tendency, 
as  the  claims  of  the  king  as  the  chief  ruler  of  the  church 
are  advocated,  and  the  decentralizing  tendency,  as  the  dio- 
ceses have  at  times  been  governed  by  regulations  of  their 
own.  The  common  conflict  against  the  reintroduction  of 
Roman  Catholicism  and  the  introduction  of  modified  Cal- 
vinism have  contributed  toward  the  unifying  process.  Nor 
have  German  rationalism  and  French  freethinking  been 
without  their  influence  in  the  development  of  views,  in  a 
later  period,  that  have  been  felt  also  in  the  sphere  of  church 
government. 

The  Swedish  Church  has  been  led  by  its  practical  neces- 
sities, and  uninfluenced  by  any  devotion  to  particular  theo- 
ries of  church  government,  to  a  remarkable  combination  of 
elements  belonging  to  all  the  various  theories.  It  is  at  once 
congregational,  presbyterian,  and  episcopalian.  Rooted  in 
pre-Reformation,  and,  as  has  been  thought,  even  in  pre- 
Christian  usage, ^  are  the  regulations  by  which  each  parish 
provides  the  administration  of  its  temporal  afl"airs — the' as- 
sembly of  voting  members,  under  presidency  of  the  pastor, 
at  least  twice  a  year,  and  the  representation  in  this  assem- 
bly according  to  the  assessed  valuation  of  the  real  estate. 
This  parish  assembly  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  teaching 
or  worship  or  discipline ;  but  elects  the  various  officers  and 
boards,  builds  the  edifices  needed  for  church  purposes, 
appropriates  moneys,  audits  accounts,  provides  salaries,  and 
otherwise  contributes  to  the  general  order  and  morality  of 

'   See  Knos,  p.  17. 


CHURCH  ORGANIZATION.  75 

the  parish.  The  common,  but  not  the  universal,  practice 
is  that  it  elects,  as  a  pastor,  one  out  of  three  candidates 
proposed  by  the  consistory. 

In  order  to  guard  against  an  excessive  centralization  of 
power,  there  are  in  each  parish  several  administrative 
boards.  Of  these,  the  most  important  is  the  church  coun- 
cil. For  nearly  a  century  after  the  Reformation  this  insti- 
tution was  unknown.  It  originated,  not  in  any  assertion 
of  rights  on  the  part  of  the  laity,  but  in  provisions  for  lay 
participation  in  disciplinary  cases  suggested  by  the  clergy 
themselves,  which,  after  making  gradual  progress,  was  le- 
gally sanctioned  in  1650  and  1675.  First,  the  expedient 
was  adopted  of  calling  in  the  aid  of  two  or  three  prominent 
lay  members  in  particular  cases,  the  *'  church  council,"  as 
such,  being  a  permanent  institution  in  one  diocese  after 
another,  *'  in  the  diocese  of  Abo  already  in  1673,  and  in 
other  places,  as  in  the  diocese  of  Westeras,  according  to 
a  few  traces,  still  earlier."^  It  consists  of  at  least  four, 
and  at  most  eight,  members,  chosen  by  the  parish,  with 
the  pastor  as  chairman,  who  are  the  pastor's  advisers  and 
assistants  in  all  disciplinary  cases  where  his  private  efforts 
are  unsuccessful.  Where  the  church  council  is  unsuccess- 
ful, cases  are  carried  up  to  the  consistory.  They  ordi- 
narily remain  in  office  until  death,  or  disablement  by  age 
or  disease. 

Another  board,  of  pre-Reformation  origin,  aids  the  pas- 
tor in  the  care  of  the  church  building,  the  revenues  of  the 
church,  etc."-^  The  care  of  the  schools  is  intrusted  to  a 
third  board,  of  officer  selected  by  the  parish ;  while,  within 
the  last  half-century,  the  care  of  the  poor  is  allotted  to  a 
fourth,  composed  of  the  pastor  and  two  members  chosen 
biennially,  and  in  which  there  is  a  manifest  commingling 
of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  duties. 

1  Knos,  p.  21.  2  Ibid.,  p.  22  sq. 


76  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  iil. 

There  evidently  has  been  a  diversity  of  opinion  as  to 
the  theory  of  the  relation  of  the  church  to  the  state,  viz., 
as  to  whether  the  king  bear  the  relation  only  of  chief  pro- 
tector and  defender  of  the  church,  or  whether  he  be  actu- 
ally its  suinmus  episcopus ;  for  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  Archbishop  of  Upsala  has  no  jurisdiction  over  the  rest, 
but  is  simply  the  consecrator  and  the  one  having  preced- 
ency in  rank.  The  church  law  of  1686  expressly  says: 
**  The  oversight,  care,  and  protection  of  the  church  and 
congregation  of  God  in  Sweden  are  intrusted  by  God  to 
the  king."  But  this  power  is  Hmited,  not  only  by  the 
pledge  to  the  confession,  made  in  his  oath ;  all  matters 
pertaining  to  the  essentials  of  worship,  church  contro- 
versies, and  church  discipline  are  beyond  his  sphere,  ex- 
cept as  his  oath  compels  him  to  guard  the  exercise  of  the 
religion  guaranteed  in  this  pledge.  The  ReicJistag,  con- 
vening at  least  every  three  years,  in  connection  with  the 
king  decides  on  the  most  important  church  questions  as 
prescribed  in  the  church  law.  In  it  there  are  represen- 
tatives of  the  four  estates — nobility,  clergy,  citizens,  and 
peasants — the  archbishop,  all  the  bishops,  the  chief  pastor 
at  Stockholm,  and  elected  pastors  being  included.  In  the 
administration  of  the  church,  all  changes  in  the  boundaries 
of  parishes  must  be  sanctioned  by  the  king,  who  also  ap- 
points all  bishops  and  pastors,  choosing  one  of  the  three 
who  are  elected  as  candidates  by  the  authorized  voters, 
exceptions  to  this  rule  prevailing  only  in  a  few  privileged 
parishes.  The  king  has  the  full  oversight  of  the  congre- 
gations, and  exercises  it  partly  through  his  "  minister  of 
worship,"  and  partly  through  the  bishops  and  the  con- 
sistories. 

The  church  in  Sweden  has  no  other  general  representation  than  that  of  the 
state ;  and,  accordingly,  the  representatives  of  the  people  officiate  not  only  as 
representatives  of  the  state,  but  also  as  the  representatives  or  general  synod 


SWEDISH   ORDINATION.  ^J 

of  the  church.  The  idea  of  a  state  church,  or  the  close  union  of  church  and 
state,  is  realized  there  almost  to  an  extreme,  nevertheless  not  without  espe- 
cial balances  of  power,  for  the  maintenance  of  church  freedom. i 

Among  these  is  the  provision  made  for  the  separate  ses- 
sions and  organization  of  the  clerical  members  of  the 
Reichstag  for  deliberations  on  certain  questions  of  worship, 
discipline,  etc.,  while  on  other  questions  all  four  estates 
participate.  Another  is  that  of  diocesan  consistories,  whose 
decision  in  certain  cases  is  necessary  before  they  can  come 
under  cognizance  of  the  king. 

Every  diocese  is  regarded  as  a  coordinate  part  of  the 
state  church,  the  whole  being  subordinate  only  to  the  king. 
Seven  of  these  dioceses  existed  before  the  Reformation ; 
five  new  dioceses  were  created  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
Repudiating  altogether  the  idea  of  the  ministry  as  a  priest- 
hood, the  consecration  of  a  bishop  is  regarded  as  convey- 
ing no  higher  gifts  than  those  belonging  to  every  true 
preacher  of  the  Word.  In  former  times,  by  a  special 
royal  dispensation,  but  which  was  very  rarely  granted,  or- 
dinations were  administered  in  an  episcopal  vacancy  by  a 
provost ;  ^  the  rule,  however,  of  exclusive  ordination  by 
bishops  is  now  strictly  enforced.  The  bishop  has  over- 
sight of  the  preaching,  the  worship,  the  church  discipline, 
the  instruction  of  the  young ;  personally  or  through  a  del- 
egate, he  makes  visitations  to  the  parishes  of  his  diocese, 
convokes  and  holds  diocesan  synods,  and  gives  warnings 
and  admonitions.  During  a  long  period  after  the  Reforma- 
tion the  preparation  of  candidates  for  the  ministry  was  one 
of  the  most  engrossing  and  important  duties  of  the  bishops. 
Of  this  they  have  been  relieved  by  the  universities.  The 
bishop  presides  in  the  consistory,  where,  as  everything  is 
decided  by  a  majority  vote,  he  influences  the  resolutions 
only  by  the  weight  of  his  character  and  of  the  learning 
1  Knos,  p.  70.  2  ii)id.,  p.  94. 


yS  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  hi. 

that  he  brings  to  the  discussion  of  Important  questions. 
"The  Swedish  bishops  are,  therefore,"  says  a  professor  of 
Upsala,  *'  to  be  compared  rather  with  the  general  superin- 
tendents of  Germany  than  with  the  bishops  of  the  Cath- 
oHc  or  AngHcan  churches.  The  bishops  of  the  four  dio- 
ceses last  founded  were  called,  until  i  772,  'superintendents,' 
although  they  possessed  all  the  episcopal  rights."  ^  The 
dioceses  are  divided  into  districts,  under  the  care  of  ''  pro- 
vosts," corresponding  to  the  **  superintendents"  of  Ger- 
many, and  who  act  as  the  executive  administrators  under 
the  bishops  and  consistories. 

Although  no  stress  is  placed  upon  the  so-called  ''  apos- 
tolical succession  "  of  bishops,  nevertheless  it  may  be  well 
to  state  the  grounds  upon  which  the  Swedish  Church 
could  avail  itself  of  this  theory  among  those  to  whom  this 
is  of  more  importance  than  her  Lutheran  character.  Peter 
Magnusson  was,  May  i,  1524,  consecrated  Bishop  of  Wes- 
teras  at  Rome  by  a  cardinal  bishop.  In  the  year  1528 
Bishop  Peter  Magnusson  consecrated  at  Strengnas,  Mag- 
nus Haraldson  of  Skara,  Magnus  Sommar  of  Strengnas, 
and  Martinus  Skytte  of  Abo.  It  is  true  that  he  protested 
against  consecrating  them,  on  the  ground  that  their  elec- 
tion had  not  been  confirmed  by  the  pope.  But  the  act 
was  no  less  duly  and  officially  performed.  Afterward 
(Sunday  before  Michaelmas,  1531),  the  same  bishop,  with 
Bishop  Sommar,  consecrated  Laurentius  Petri,  the  first 
Lutheran  archbishop  of  Upsala.  Whether  this  *'  succes- 
sion thus  secured,"  which  *' the  Swedish  Church  was  ex- 
ceedingly fortunate  in  keeping  up,"  *'  by  means  of  her 
great  archbishops  and  bishops  through  all  the  transitions 
of  reform  which  were  fully  settled  at  the  great  council  at 
Upsala  in  1593,"  2  has  been  invalidated  by  the  ''  intention  " 

1  Knos,  p.  95. 

2  "American  Church  Review,"  July,  1882,  p.  227.     Compare  voL-xxxvi., 


CONFIRMATION.  79 

of  Bishop  Magnusson  or  by  the  pledge  made  by  Swedish 
Lutheran  bishops  and  other  clergy  to  the  Lutheran  con- 
fessions, in  which  the  divine  authority  of  the  superiority 
of  bishops  is  rejected,  may  be  left  to  others  to  decide. 
The  Lutheran  Church  cares  little  for  such  recognition, 
unless  the  purity  of  the  faith  which  she  teaches  be  ac- 
knowledged, and  the  marks  of  the  church  be  found  in  the 
agreement  of  the  doctrine  with  the  Word  of  God,  and  the 
right  administration  of  the  sacraments,  rather  than  in  the 
*'  endless  genealogies  "  of  purely  external  relations. 

In  the  Swedish,  as  in  other  Lutheran  churches,  con- 
firmation was  long  in  disuse,  and  was  introduced  gradu- 
ally, only  since  the  middle  of  the  last  century.^  It  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  it  is  not  called,  in  the  Swedish  liturgy, 
"  confirmation,"  but  that  the  chapter  treating  of  it  has  the 
title :  *'  What  is  to  be  done  when  the  youth  come,  for  the 
first  time,  to  the  Lord's  Supper?"  The  order  consists  in 
the  examination  in  the  catechism,  the  confession  of  faith, 
the  promise  of  fidelity,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  patri- 
archal benediction  pronounced  by  the  pastor  over  the 
kneeling  children. 2  In  later  editions,^  the  pastor  lays  his 
hand  upon  the  head  of  each,  with  the  prayer :  ''  The 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  give  thee  strength,"  etc. 

same  "  Review,"  p.  i,  for  argument  of  Dr.  Nicholson,  English  Consular 
Chaplain  at  Gothenburg.  See  also  Professor  Knos,  of  Upsala,  in  Appendix 
to  the  English  translation  of  Anjou's  "  History  of  the  Reformation  in  Swe- 
den "  (New  York,  1859),  pp.  634  sqq. 

1  Knos,  p.  24.  2  Order  of  1809,  1839. 

3    1854,   1861. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    LUTHERANS    OF   NEW    SWEDEN    (1637-1700). 

In  its  origin  the  Swedish  is  closely  connected  with  the 
Dutch  colonization  of  America.  The  enterprise  of  Dutch 
traders  made  repeated  efforts  to  compete  with  the  regu- 
larly established  channels  of  Dutch  intercourse  with  Amer- 
ica, under  the  patronage  and  auspices  of  the  Swedish  gov- 
ernment. The  Dutch  West  India  Company  of  1621  was 
followed,  accordingly,  in  1626,  by  the  formation  of  a  Swed- 
ish company  for  similar  purposes.  It  was  the  result  of  the 
negotiations  undertaken  at  the  court  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 
by  William  Usselinx,  a  native  of  Antwerp.  The  royal 
family  and  the  bishops  were  among  its  stockholders.  The 
plan  was  interrupted  by  the  necessities  of  Protestant  Ger- 
many and  the  death  of  the  king,  and  seemed  to  have  been 
entirely  abandoned  until  Peter  Minuit,  after  being  dismissed 
from  his  position  as  director- general  of  the  colony  in  New 
Netherlands,  appeared  at  the  Swedish  court,  and  succeeded 
in  reviving  the  interest.  The  English,  in  1634,  relinquished, 
in  favor  of  the  Swedes,  their  claims  upon  the  region  to  be 
occupied.  In  August,  1637,  two  vessels,  the  "Key  of 
Calmar"  and  the  *'  Bird  Griffin,"  set  sail  from  Goteborg  in 
Sweden,  with  the  first  colony.  They  commemorated  their 
joy  by  naming  the  place  where  they  landed,  after  a  six 
months'  voyage,  **  Paradise  Point."  Their  lands  were  pur- 
chased in  due  form  from  the  Indians,  and  regular  deeds 
for  their  possession  were  given,  and  sent  to  Sweden.      Fort 

80 


RE  OR  us    TORKILLUS,  8  I 

Christina  was  immediately  built,  where  Wilmington,  Del, 
now  stands,  under  whose  protection  the  first  settlement 
was  made. 

Heretofore  it  has  been  stated,  upon  the  authority  of  the 
Swedish  provost,  Acrelius,  that  Rev.  Reorus  Torkillus  came 
with  this  first  colony ;  but  the  most  recent  Swedish  author- 
ity, Norberg,^  says  that  he  accompanied  the  second  expe- 
dition in  1639.  He  has  the  distinction  of  being  the  first 
Lutheran  minister  in  North  America.  He  was  a  native  of 
Fassberg,  thirty  years  old,  had  studied  at  Lidkoping,  had 
been  settled  for  several  years  at  Skara,  and,  when  called  to 
America,  was  teacher  in  the  schools  and  chaplain  at  Gote- 
borg."-^  Public  service  was  begun  in  Fort  Christina,  which 
seemed  necessary,  because  the  Indians  were  not  to  be 
trusted.  It  is  probable  that,  under  Torkillus,  the  first 
church  was  built.  Of  these  early  churches  Pastor  Rudman 
afterward  gave  a  graphic  description :  *'  After  a  suitable 
elevation,  like  any  other  house,  a  projection  was  made, 
some  courses  higher,  out  of  which  they  could  shoot,  so 
that  if  the  heathen  fell  upon  them,  which  could  not  be  done 
without  their  coming  up  to  the  house,  then  the  Swedes 
could  shoot  down  upon  them  continually,  and  the  heathen, 
who  used  only  bows  and  arrows,  could  do  them  little  or 
no  injury."^  This  evidently  refers  to  the  conversion  of 
the  block-house  into  a  church.  Pastor  Torkillus  died  in 
Christina,  September  7,  1643,  after  a  summer  of  great  sick- 
ness and  mortality  in  the  colony,  and  is  buried  under  the 
southern  end  of  the  Old  Swedes'  Church  at  Wilmington."^ 

The  year  of  the  death  of  Torkillus  marked  a  great  ad- 
vance in  the  strength  and  organization  of  the  colony.  New 
life  was  infused  into  it  by  the  formal  appointment  of  John 

1  Page  3.  2  jhid. 

3  Acrelius,  English  translation,  p.  176;  Norberg,  p.  3. 

*  Grabner,  p.  15. 


82  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

Printz  as  governor  of  New  Sweden,  the  large  accession  of 
immigrants  he  brought  with  him,  and  the  regulations  which 
he  was  instructed  to  enforce.  Two  of  these  regulations, 
signed  by  Oxenstiern  and  the  other  members  of  the  Swed- 
ish "  Council  of  State,"  are  of  especial  importance  to  the 
religious  interests  of  the  colony.  The  first  concerns  the 
Indians,  and  undoubtedly  gave  the  impulse  to  the  mission- 
ary work  that  soon  followed.      It  is  as  follows : 

The  wild  nations,  bordering  upon  all  other  sides,  the  Governor  shall  under- 
stand how  to  treat  with  all  humanity  and  respect,  that  no  violence  or  wrong 
be  done  to  them  by  Her  Royal  Majesty  or  her  subjects  aforesaid;  but  he 
shall  rather,  at  every  opportunity,  exert  himself  that  the  same  wild  people 
may  gradually  be  instructed  in  the  truths  and  worship  of  the  Christian  relig- 
ion, and  in  other  ways  brought  to  civilization  and  good  government,  and,  in 
this  manner,  properly  guided.  Especially  shall  he  seek  to  gain  their  confi- 
dence, and  impress  upon  their  minds  that  neither  he,  the  Governor,  nor  his 
people  and  subordinates,  have  come  into  those  parts  to  do  them  any  wrong  or 
injury,  but  much  more  for  the  purpose  of  furnishing  them  with  such  things 
as  they  may  need  for  the  ordinary  wants  of  life. 

The  Other  instruction  has  reference  to  the  spiritual  care 
of  the  colonists : 

Above  all  things,  shall  the  Governor  consider  and  see  to  it  that  a  true  and 
due  worship,  becoming  honor,  laud,  and  praise  be  paid  to  the  Most  High 
God  in  all  things,  and,  to  that  end,  all  proper  care  shall  be  taken  that  divine 
service  be  zealously  performed  according  to  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion, the  Council  of  Upsala,  and  the  ceremonies  of  the  Swedish  Church ;  and 
all  persons,  but  especially  the  young,  shall  be  duly  instructed  in  the  articles 
of  their  Christian  faith ;  and  all  good  church  discipline  shall  in  like  manner 
be  duly  exercised  and  received.  But  so  far  as  relates  to  Holland  colonists 
that  live  and  settle  under  the  government  of  Her  Royal  Majesty  and  the 
Swedish  Crown,  the  Governor  shall  not  disturb  them  in  the  indulgence 
granted  them  as  to  the  exercise  of  the  Reformed  religion  according  to  the 
aforesaid  Royal  Charter.! 

With  Governor  Printz   there  landed  at  Fort  Christina, 
February  15,  1643,  the  Rev.  John  Campanius.  who  is  men- 

1  Acrclius,  pp.  35-39. 


CAMPANIUS.  83 

tioned  by  Bishop  Svedberg  as  "  a  man  most  highly  to  be 
praised  on  account  of  his  unwearied  zeal  in  always  propa- 
gating the  love  of  God."  He  was  a  native  of  Stockholm, 
and  was  nearly  forty-two  years  of  age.  His  chief  station 
was  at  Tinicum  (Delaware  County),  at  that  time  the  gov- 
ernor's residence,  about  nine  miles  southwest  of  Philadel- 
phia. Here  he  built  a  frame  church  which  was  consecrated 
September  4,  1646,  and  which  for  about  half  a  century 
continued  to  be  used  for  divine  worship.  He  returned  to 
Sweden  in  1648,  leaving  this  country  in  May,  and  dying  in 
his  native  land  September  17,  1683.  It  is  recorded  of  him 
that  he  not  only  conducted  public  worship  on  the  Sundays 
and  festival  days,  but  that  twice  a  week,  on  Wednesdays 
and  Fridays,  he  preached,  and  on  all  week-days  held  morn- 
ing and  evening  services.  Where  the  pastor  could  not 
attend,  the  services  were  led  by  readers,  appointed  by  the 
governor.^  He  learned  the  language  of  the  neighboring 
Delaware  Indians,  in  order  that  he  could  do  missionary 
work  among  them,  and  translated  Luther's  Small  Cate- 
chism for  them.  The  pubhcation  of  the  translation  was  de- 
layed, however,  until  1696,  when  it  was  undertaken  at  the 
personal  expense  of  Charles  XL,  and  large  numbers  were 
sent  to  America.  The  translation,  although  not  the  pub- 
lication, of  the  catechism  antedates  that  of  Eliot's  Indian 
Bible.  EHot's  New  Testament  appeared  in  1661,  and  the 
Old  Testament  three  years  later.  The  book  of  Campa- 
nius  ^  has  an  introduction  of  fourteen  pages.  The  transla- 
tion, which  Is  often  a  paraphrase,  accompanied  by  explan- 
atory questions  and  answers,  is  followed  by  a  Swedish 
version,  paragraph  by  paragraph.      At  the  close  there  is  a 

1  Grabner,  p.  16. 

2  Lutheri  Catechismus,  "  Ofwersatt  pa  American-Virginiske  Spraket." 
Stockholm,  Tryckt  vthi  thet  af  Kongl.  Maytt  privelig.  Burchardi  Tryckeri, 
af  J.  J.  Genath/f.     Anno  MDCXCVL,  p.  160. 


84  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

vocabulary  of  the  Delaware  language  ( Vocabiilariiun  Bar- 
baro-virgineorurii)  of  twenty- eight  pages. 

The  grandson  of  Campanlus  published,  in  1 702,  an 
interesting  account  of  his  grandfather's  experiences  in 
America.^ 

The  Indians  were  frequent  visitors  at  my  grandfather's  house.  When,  for 
the  first  time,  he  performed  divine  service  in  the  Swedish  congregation,  they 
came  to  hear  him,  and  greatly  wondered  that  he  had  so  much  to  say,  and  that 
he  stood  alone,  and  talked  so  long,  while  all  the  rest  were  listening  in  silence. 
This  excited  in  them  strange  suspicions ;  they  thought  everything  was  not 
right,  and  that  some  conspiracy  was  going  forward  amongst  us ;  in  conse- 
quence of  which  my  grandfather's  life  and  that  of  the  other  priests  were,  for 
some  time,  in  considerable  danger  from  the  Indians  who  daily  came  to  him 
and  asked  him  many  questions. 

An  explanation  was  then  given  of  the  chief  doctrines  of 
Christianity.     The  narrative  continues  : 

They  had  great  pleasure  in  hearing  these  things,  at  which  they  greatly 
wondered,  and  began  to  think  quite  differently  from  what  they  had  done  be- 
fore ;  so  that  he  gained  their  affection,  and  they  visited  him  and  sent  to  him 
very  frequently.  They  induced  him  to  exert  himself  to  learn  their  language, 
so  as  to  be  able  to  translate  for  them  what  they  wanted  very  much,  to  instruct 
them  in  the  Christian  doctrine ;  and  he  was  so  successful,  that  those  people 
who  were  wandering  in  darkness  were  able  to  see  the  light.  He  translated 
for  them  the  catechism  into  their  language,  and  he  succeeded  so  far  that  many 
of  those  barbarians  were  converted  to  the  Christian  faith,  or,  at  least,  acquired 
so  much  knowledge  of  it  that  they  were  ready  to  exclaim,  as  Captain  John 
Smith  relates  of  the  Virginia  Indians,  that,  so  far  as  the  cannons  and  guns  of 
the  Christians  exceeded  the  bows  and  arrows  of  the  Indians  in  shooting,  so 
far  was  their  God  superior  to  that  of  the  Indians. 

Rev.  Israel  Holgh  had,  in  1644,  made  a  stay  of  only 
three  months.^ 

Before  Campanlus  had  left,  Rev.  Lars  Lock  had  come 
from  Sweden  in  1647,  and,  succeeding  Campanius,  served 
the  churches  at  Tinicum  and  Christina  for  twenty-two  years. 

1  We  know  it  only  from  the  translation  :  "  Description  of  the  Province  of 
New  Sweden,"  by  Thomas  Campanius  Holm.  Translated  from  the  Swedish 
by  Peter  S.  Du  Ponceau,  LL.D.     Philadelphia,  1839. 

2  Grabner,  p.  17. 


SURRENDER   OF  NEW  SWEDEN.  85 

It  scarcely  belongs  to  our  province  to  enter  into  the  details 
of  his  matrimonial  unhappiness,  and  the  miseries  in  which 
it  involved  him.  They  have  been  preserved  in  contem- 
porary records  and  public  documents,  and  perpetuate  the 
gossip  of  those  days,  with  a  fullness  for  which  we  long  in 
regard  to  more  important  and  edifying  subjects.  At  his 
death  in  1688  he  had  been  disabled  from  service  for  a 
number  of  years. 

Rev.  Matthias  Nertunius  made  two  attempts  to  reach 
New  Sweden.  In  1649  his  ship  was  stranded  near  Porto 
Rico,  and  afterward  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards. 
His  second  attempt,  in  1654,  was  more  successful.  But 
with  his  clerical  companion.  Rev.  Peter  Hjort,  he  returned 
home  the  next  year  after  the  capitulation  to  the  Dutch. 
The  mission  of  both  these  men  was  a  total  disappointment. 
Hjort  had  been  pastor  at  Fort  Trinity  (New  Castle)  and 
Nertunius  at  Upland  (Chester).  Under  date  of  July  13, 
1654,  Governor  Rising  gives  a  discouraging  account  of  the 
clergy  of  New  Sweden,  and  says  that  of  the  three,  Nertu- 
nius, Lock,  and  Hjort,  the  first  was  by  far  the  best.^ 

Governor  Printz  having  returned  to  Sweden  in  1652, 
there  was  an  interval  of  two  years,  during  which  the  col- 
ony was  administered  by  his  son-in-law,  the  Vice- Governor 
Papegoija.  Then  came,  in  1654,  Governor  Rising,  whose 
energy  was  proved  by  his  immediate  attack  upon  Fort 
Casimir,  which  the  Dutch,  extending  their  territory  from 
the  New  Netherlands,  had  erected  upon  Swedish  soil.  As 
the  Swedes  captured  it  upon  Trinity  Sunday,  they  called  it 
''Fort  of  the  Holy  Trinity."  ^  The  Dutch  retaHated  the 
next  year.  Fort  Trinity  was  retaken,  and  a  few  days  after 
Fort  Christina  fell.  New  Sweden  became  subject  to  the 
rule  of  Governor  Stuyvesant  in  September,  1655,  one  of 
the  terms  of  the  capitulation  being:    "Those  who  choose 

1  Nyberg,  p.  6.  2  Acrelius,  p.  63. 


S6  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

to  remain  shall  have  the  liberty  of  adhering  to  their 
own  Augsburg  Confession,  as  also  of  supporting  a  min- 
ister for  their  instruction."  In  this  expedition,  Stuyve- 
sant  had  been  accompanied  by  his  pastor,  Megapolensis, 
who  preached  a  thanksgiving  sermon  at  the  taking  of 
Fort  Trinity,  but  was  dissatisfied  with  the  terms  of  the 
capitulation  that  permitted  the  continuance  of  Lutheran 
preaching. 

During  the  Dutch  rule  over  New  Sweden,  a  young  man 
by  the  name  of  Abelius  Selskoorn,  or  Zetskoorn,  ''  a  stu- 
dent," according  to  Acrelius,  who  had  been  for  a  while  in 
New  Amsterdam,  was  called  in  to  aid  Lock  in  his  work, 
having  received  from  Governor  Stuy vesant  **  a  recommen- 
dation to  the  vestry  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  to  ordain 
him  to  the  ministerial  office,  and  also  to  promise  him  like 
support  with  Dominie  Lars."  ^  The  Hmit  of  the  Dutch  rule 
was  the  surrender  of  New  Netherlands  to  the  English  in 
1664. 

The  connection  of  the  former  pastor  of  the  Dutch  Church 
in  New  Amsterdam,  Jacob  Fabritius,  with  the  Swedes 
began  in  167 1,  when  he  served  the  church  at  Tranhook 
(Wilmington).  Afterward  (1672)  we  find  a  petition  pre- 
sented to  the  authorities  at  New  Amsterdam  to  divide  the 
Swedes  into  two  parishes  under  Lock  and  Fabritius.  Part 
of  the  winter  of  1673-74  he  spent  in  New  Amsterdam,  and 
was  subjected  to  a  sentence  by  the  restored  Dutch  rule 
under  Colve.  In  1677  he  became  pastor  at  Wicaco,  now 
in  the  southern  part  of  Philadelphia,  converting  an  old 
block-house,  built  in  1669,  into  a  church,  and  holding  ser- 
vice there,  and,  on  alternate  Sundays,  at  Tinicum.  In  this 
first  church  at  Wicaco,  where  Gloria  Dei  Church  now  stands, 
the  first  service  was  held  on  Trinity  Sunday,  June  9th. 
Five  years  later  Fabritius  became  blind,  but  continued  to 

1  Acrelius,  p.  loi. 


SPIRITUAL  DESTITUTION.  ^y 

serve  the  congregations,  as  best  he  could,  until  his  death  in 
1693  or  shortly  later.  As  the  infirmities  of  age  increased, 
his  duties  were  made  heavier,  first  by  the  disablement,  and 
then  by  the  death,  of  Lock.  These  two  aged  pastors  lived, 
the  former  in  Kensington,  and  the  latter  in  Chester.  It 
is  a  sad  picture  afforded  us  by  certain  documents,  which 
testify  to  the  love  and  esteem  in  which  Fabritius  was  held, 
but  describe  the  sad  state  of  the  congregations  which  his 
infirmities  enabled  him  to  serve  only  with  great  difficulty 
and  inefficiency.  A  lay  reader,  Andrew  Bengston,  was 
able,  however",  to  supply  some  of  the  wants,  by  reading  to 
the  congregation  at  Tinicum  from  Holler's  ''  Postils,"  while 
Charles  Christopher  Springer  performed  a  similar  service  at 
Wilmington.  But  only  the  most  faithful  attended.  Espe- 
cially upon  the  younger  generation  was  the  church  losing 
its  hold. 

It  is  difficult  to  see  how  it  could  have  been  otherwise. 
The  bond  that  had  united  the  colony  with  the  mother- 
country  had  been  entirely  severed.  Swedish  immigration 
had  long  since  ceased.  The  thought  of  the  perpetuation 
of  the  ministry  from  their  own  churches  had  not  occurred. 
At  the  same  time,  as  the  Swedish  was  still  the  prevalent 
language,  they  could  be  served  only  by  the  Dutch,  which  is 
readily  understood  because  of  the  affinity  between  the  two 
languages ;  and  the  Dutch  were  incapable  of  properly  pro- 
viding even  for  their  own  churches  in  the  New  Netherlands. 

Letters  were  written,  but  received  no  answer.  The  Lu- 
theran Consistory  at  Amsterdam  was  appealed  to  either  to 
send  a  pastor  from  Holland,  or  to  enlist  interest  in  Sweden  ; 
but  in  vain.  It  is  God's  plan  often  to  lead  his  people  to 
the  very  verge  of  despair  before  interposing  his  deliver- 
ance ;  and  so  it  was  here.  A  great  revival  of  interest  in 
the  Swedish  churches  in  America  on  the  part  of  the  church 
at  home,  as  well  as  of  religious  life  in  these  churches  them- 


88  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

selv^es,  was  just  at  hand.  But  how  wonderful  the  means 
by  which  it  was  accompHshed ! 

A  young  man,  Andrew  Printz,  a  nephew  of  the  first 
governor,  traveled,  without  any  very  definite  end  in  view, 
to  America,  and  in  1690  visited  the  settlements  of  his  coun- 
trymen. On  his  return  to  Sweden,  in  conversing  with  the 
postmaster  at  Gothenburg,  John  Thelin,  he  mentioned  the 
sad  condition  in  which  he  found  the  churches.  Thelin  was 
much  moved  by  what  he  heard,  and  made  an  appeal  to 
King  Charles  XI.  (reigned  1660-97)  i^^  their  behalf.  En- 
couraged by  the  disposition  of  the  king,  after  the  exact  facts 
were  known,  to  be  of  assistance,  Thelin  wrote  a  long-  letter 
of  inquiry,  which  he  dispatched  to  America  by  two  routes. 
In  it  he  assures  them  of  the  king's  readiness  to  furnish 
them  not  only  with  ministers,  but  ''  with  all  sorts  of  relig- 
ious books  in  both  languages,  Swedish  and  Finnish,"  and 
that  they  may  be  especially  encouraged  because  of  the 
friendship  between  the  kings  of  Sweden  and  of  England. 
Reference  is  also  made  to  an  ofTer,  made  years  before  by 
William  Penn  to  the  Swedish  envoy  in  London,  to  have 
ministers  and  books  forwarded  them. 

This  letter  of  Thelin  was  answered  by  a  very  intelligent 
man,  before  mentioned,  Charles  Springer,  who,  after  a 
thorough  education,  while  an  attache  of  the  Swedish  min- 
ister in  England,  had  been  abducted  and  carried  off  as  a 
servant  to  America,  and,  after  liberation,  had  found  a  home 
with  those  of  his  own  nationality  on  the  Delaware.  Mr. 
Springer  writes  (May  31,  1693): 

We  beg  that  there  may  be  sent  to  us  two  Swedish  ministers,  who  are  well 
learned  and  well  exercised  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  who  may  well  defend 
both  themselves  and  us  against  all  the  false  teachers  and  strange  sects,  by 
whom  we  are  surrounded,  or  who  may  oppose  us  on  account  of  our  true, 
pure,  uncorrupted  service  to  God  and  the  Lutheran  religion,  which  we  shall 
now  confess  before  God  and  all  the  world,  so  that,  if  it  should  so  happen — 
which,  however,  may  God  avert — we  are  ready  to  seal  this  with  our  own 


BISHOP  SVEDB ERG'S  INTERVENTION.  89 

blood.  We  beg  also  that  these  ministers  may  be  such  as  live  a  sedate  and 
sober  life,  so  that  we  and  our  children,  led  by  the  example  of  their  godly 
conversation,  may  also  lead  lives  godly  and  well  pleasing  to  God.  It  is  also 
our  humble  request  that  we  may  have  sent  to  us  twelve  Bibles,  three  copies 
of  Sermons,  forty-two  Manuals,  one  hundred  Handbooks  and  Spiritual 
Meditations,  two  hundred  Catechisms,  etc.  God  grant  that  we  may  obtain 
faithful  pastors  and  watchmen  for  our  souls,  who  may  also  feed  us  with  that 
spiritual  food,  which  is  the  preaching  of  God's  Word  and  the  administration 
of  the  Holy  Sacraments  in  their  proper  form. 

The  letter  gives  an  interesting  account  of  the  state  of 
the  settlement,  the  fertility  of  the  land,  the  prosperity  of 
the  people,  the  kindness  shown  them  both  by  the  Dutch 
and  the  English,  their  affection  for  Sweden,  etc.  It  closes 
with  the  acknowledgment  of  the  divine  goodness  in  bring- 
ing their  affairs  to  the  attention  of  the  king,  and  prays 
that  the  work  thus  begun  may  be  completed : 

**  For  we  do  not  believe  that  God  will  forsake  us,  al- 
though we  are  in  a  strange  and  heathen  land,  far  away 
from  our  own  dear  fatherland."^ 

A  postscript  asks  as  a  special  favor  that  volumes  of  ser- 
mons on  both  the  Gospels  and  Epistles  be  sent  to  Captain 
Lasse  Cock,  "  for  which  he  will  pay."  A  roll  is  added  giv- 
ing a  list  of  188  Swedish  families,  including  942  persons  in 
the  settlement. 

Immediate  action  on  the  part  of  the  king  was  delayed 
by  various  circumstances,  especially  by  the  death  of  the 
queen.  But  the  matter  was  not  neglected.  The  king  con- 
sulted a  man  whose  name  is  among  the  most  prominent  in 
Swedish  Church  history.  Dr.  Jasper  Svedberg,  at  that  time 
provost  of  the  cathedral  and  professor  of  theology  at  Up- 
sala,  and  afterward  (1702-35)  Bishop  of  Skara.  Dr.  Sved- 
berg recalled  a  conversation  which  he  had  once  had  with 
Dr.  Edzardi  of  Hamburg,  who  was  interested  in  missions 
to  the  Jews,  concerning  a  large  amount  of  property  held 

^  Correspondence  in  Acrelius,  pp.  186-189. 


90  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

by  the  Swedish  crown,  which  was  given  it  in  trust  to  be 
applied  to  efforts  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  but 
which  had  been  diverted  to  the  use  of  the  nobility.  Dr. 
Svedberg  advised  that  these  funds  should  be  devoted  to 
missions  to  the  heathen  through  the  Swedes  in  America, 
and  *'  to  see  to  it  that  the  children  of  Sweden  do  not  be- 
come heathen  as  they  dwell  among  us." 

The  matter  was,  therefore,  formally  intrusted  to  the  arch- 
bishop (SwebiHus),  by  whom  it  was  laid  before  the  consis- 
tory. But  Dr.  Svedberg  was  the  most  active  in  the  selec- 
tion and  preparation  of  the  candidates.  He  named,  from 
his  students,  two — Andrew  Rudman,  who  was  just  com- 
pleting his  course  of  study  for  the  degree  of  Ph.D.,  and 
Eric  Bjork,  an  inmate  of  Dr.  Svedberg's  own  house,  as 
the  tutor  of  his  nephews.  The  forethought  of  the  king 
added  a  third,  Jonas  Auren,  who  was  to  make  surveys  and 
return  soon  with  them,  but  whom  it  was  thought  well  to 
ordain  for  the  performance  of  such  ministerial  acts  as  might 
be  serviceable  among  those  with  whom  he  was  to  sojourn. 
The  translation  of  the  catechism  made  by  Campanius  was 
brought  out  from  where  it  had  lain  for  nearly  half  a  cent- 
ury in  neglect ;  and  five  hundred  copies  were  printed  and 
sent  with  the  other  books,  all  of  which  were  stamped  with 
the  king's  name  in  gilt  letters.  The  king  several  times 
called  the  three  pastors  before  him  in  his  own  private  rooms, 
and  conferred  with  them  on  their  mission. 

Rudman  and  Bjork  sailed  on  August  4,  1696,  for  Lon- 
don, where  Auren  afterward  joined  them,  There  lies  be- 
fore us  a  mute  sharer  and  witness  of  that  voyage,  in  a 
copy  of  the  second  volume  of  Brochmand's  '*  Systema  Uni- 
versae  Theologiae,"  presented  to  Bjork  as  a  parting  gift.  It 
has  a  beautifully  written  inscription :  *'  Reverendo  et  doc- 
tissimo  domino,  Erico  Tobia  Biorck,  amico  omnium  certis- 
simo,  Erici  die  Anni  1696,  in  sui  memoriam,  et  sinceri  ani- 


ARRIVAL    OF   THREE  PASTORS.  9 1 

mi  pignus,  librum  hunc,  non  tain  ex  pretio  quam  animo 
dantis  affirmandum,  cum  promissione  Tomi  prioris,  si  quan- 
do  contigerit  compotem  fieri  ejus,  offert  et  dat  Joh.  Sla., 
Upsala,  ut  supra."  It  is  interesting  to  turn  over  the  pages 
of  this  Lutheran  dogmatician,  and  to  study  the  questions 
that  afterward  occupied  Bjork's  mind  during  his  isolation 
in  America,  and  the  marginal  notes  which  we  can  readily 
think  were  made  by  his  hand.  The  commission  of  these 
pastors,  still  preserved  in  the  archives  of  Gloria  Dei  Church, 
obligated  them  "  to  teach,  without  any  human  addition  or 
side  doctrine,  God's  holy  and  saving  Word  purely  and 
clearly,  as  it  is  fully  presented  in  the  Canonical  Books  of 
the  prophets  in  the  Old  and  of  the  apostles  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  briefly  explained  in  the  oecumenical  sym- 
bols of  the  Christian  Church,  the  Apostles',  the  Nicene,  and 
the  Athanasian,  as  well  as  especially  in  the  Augsburg 
Confession  and  the  other  symbolical  books  received  by  the 
Evangelical  Church."  ^ 

Spending  four  months  in  London,  after  some  stay  in 
Virginia  and  Maryland  they  reached  their  destination  in 
June,  being  formally  received  in  the  church  at  Wicaco 
June  30th,  and  at  Tranhook  (Wilmington)  July  8th.  Rud- 
man  became  pastor  at  the  former  and  Bjdrk  at  the  latter 
place.  Soon  it  became  necessary  to  make  ampler  arrange- 
ments for  their  congregations.  May  28,  1698,  the  corner- 
stone of  the  "  Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity  "  at  Wilmington, 
which  is  still  standing,  and  is  better  known  as  ''  Old 
Swedes'  Church,"  was  laid,  and  on  July  4,  1699,  the  church 
was  consecrated.  Auren  read  the  lessons,  Rudman  preached 
the  sermon  from  Psalm  cxxvi.  3,  the  pastor,  BJork,  and 
Rudman  performed  the  act  of  consecration,  and  then  fol- 
lowed several  baptisms  and  the  regular  Lord's  Day  service 
with  communion,  Auren  preaching  on  the  gospel  for  the 
^  Grabner,  p.  79. 


92  "THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

day.     The  church  cost  eight  hundred  pounds,  of  which  the 
pastor  contributed  one  hundred  and  thirty- five. 

Meanwhile  the  Wicaco  congregation,  under  Rudman, 
was  so  much  distracted  by  a  diversity  of  opinion  concern- 
ing where  the  new  church  was  to  be  built,  that  Rudman 
actually  threatened  to  lay  down  his  office  unless  they  would 
speedily  agree.  Bjork  was  called  in  as  an  arbiter.  A  ser- 
mon he  preached  from  the  gospel  for  the  tenth  Sunday 
after  Trinity  on  **  The  Tears  of  Christ  "  subdued  till  hearts, 
and  they  gave  a  written  pledge  that  the  matter  would  be 
left  to  the  absolute  decision  of  the  ministers,  and  that  all 
would  cheerfully  acquiesce  in  the  result,  whatever  it  might 
be.  All  were,  therefore,  satisfied  when  they  determined 
to  build  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  old  church, 
one  of  the  reasons  being  that  "  the  Swedes  would  ever  be 
held  in  remembrance,  as  their  church  thus  stood  in  view  of 
vessels  as  they  sailed  upon  the  river."  On  the  first  Sun- 
day after  Trinity,  1 700  (July  2d),  it  was  consecrated  as 
Gloria  Dei  Church,  Bjork  preaching  the  sermon  from 
2  Samuel  vii.  29.  This  old  church,  well  preserved,  amply 
repays  a  visit  from  all  interested  in  the  history  of  the  Lu- 
theran Church  in  America.  The  men  who  built  it  were 
faithful  Lutherans ;  the  names  upon  the  older  tombstones 
around  it  are  those  of  Lutherans  ;  the  pastors  who  preached 
there  and  were  laid  to  rest  under  its  shadow  taught  no 
other  faith  than  that  of  the  Augsburg  Confession.  While 
the  congregation  is  worshiping  in  another  language  and 
according  to  another  faith,  the  mind  of  the  Lutheran  who 
goes  thither  will  inevitably  realize  the  communion  of  saints 
that  he  has  in  common  with  Rudman  and  Bjork,  and 
Sandel  and  Acrelius  and  Von  Wrangel,  who  so  earnestly 
preached  within  those  walls,  as  well  as  with  Falckner,  who 
there  received  the  first  Lutheran  ordination  in  America, 
and  with  Muhlenberg,  who,  a  generation  afterward,  among 


A    CLERICAL   IMPOSTOR,  93 

his  first  ministerial  acts  in  this  country,  entered  its  pulpit. 
All  its  historical  associations  are  those  of  the  Lutheran 
Church ;  and  no  other  communion  can  enter  into  the  fel- 
lowship of  these  associations  except  as,  in  addition  to  its 
mere  possession  of  a  legal  title  to  the  ground  and  building, 
such  as  the  Turks  have  to  Jerusalem,  it  acknowledges  its 
share  in  the  heritage  of  the  pure  teaching  and  the  holy 
lives  of  the  men  whose  ministry  was  solemnly  pledged  to 
no  other  doctrines  than  those  of  the  Augsburg  Confession 
and  the  other  symbolical  books  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Church. 

The  pastors  were  full  of  zeal,  preaching,  instructing  in 
the  catechism,  lecturing  on  the  Bible  chapter  by  chapter, 
visiting  from  house  to  house,  and  attending  even  to  the 
details  of  the  necessary  business  arrangements  of  the  build- 
ing of  the  two  churches,  in  which  they  seem  to  have  super- 
intended everything,  without  the  modern  intervention  of 
architects,  contractors,  etc.  Rudman's  health  succumbed, 
before  many  years,  from  a  pulmonary  trouble.  By  his 
appeal  to  the  authorities  in  Sweden,  and  with  the  advice 
of  Dr.  Svedberg,  Andrew  Sandel,  a  student  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Upsala,  was  appointed  his  successor,  and  ordained 
by  Archbishop  Benzelius,  July  18,  1701.  But  before  he 
could  reach  America,  in  1702,  an  impostor  by  the  name  of 
ToUstadius  had  preceded  him,  and  was  in  actual  possession 
of  the  Wicaco  Church,  w^hen,  to  the  surprise  of  the  infirm 
pastor  Rudman,  Sandel  appeared.  The  story  of  ToUsta- 
dius that  he  had  been  sent  to  fill  the  place  which  Sandel 
had  declined  was  found  to  be  a  fabrication.  After  endeav- 
oring to  collect  another  congregation  among  the  Swedes, 
distant  from  the  centers  already  established,  and  occa- 
sioning Rudman  and  Bjork  much  trouble,  he  was  finally 
drowned  in  the  Delaware  by  the  capsizing  of  his  boat. 

Rudman  found  that  not  only  his  infirm  health  but  the 


94  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

deep  attachment  of  his  wife  to  her  native  Pennsylvania  and 
her  relatives  and  property  there  rendered  his  proposed 
departure  to  Sweden  very  difficult.  When  Wicaco,  there- 
fore, was  supplied,  he  took  charge  of  the  Dutch  Lutheran 
Church  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  as  well  as  in  New  York  City, 
where  his  pastorate  extended  from  July,  i  702,  to  Novem- 
ber, 1703.  He  returned  then  to  Philadelphia,  and  offici- 
ated as  his  strength  permitted  both  for  his  Lutheran 
brethren  and  for  the  Episcopalians-,  especially  at  Frank- 
fort, and  when  the  rector  of  Christ's  Church  visited  Eng- 
land in  1707,  supplying  his  place.  He  died  September 
1 7,  I  708,  and  was  buried  from  Gloria  Dei,  Bjork  preaching 
from  the  text  which  Rudman  had  selected,  Psalm  Ixxiii.  24. 
Before  Rudman's  death,  Bjork  had  already  been  recalled 
by  King  Charles  XH.,  but,  on  account  of  the  slow  mails 
of  those  days,  the  order  of  April  23,  1708,  did  not  arrive 
until  January  9,  1 709.  Its  execution  was  equally  dilatory, 
Bjork  remaining  until  June  29,  1714,  even  although  his 
successor,  Rev.  Andrew  Hesselius,  and  an  assistant.  Rev. 
Abraham  Lidenius,  shared  for  one  year  the  same  parson- 
age with  him  and  his  family  of  five  children.  The  year 
before  his  return  he  became  provost  of  all  the  Swedish 
churches  in  America.  On  his  return  to  Sweden  he  became 
pastor  at  Fahlun,  and  died  August  21,  1740.  By  his 
eflforts,  I  718,  a  silver  communion-set,  still  in  use  in  1874, 
was  presented  to  his  former  church  at  Christiana  by  the 
Fahlun  Mining  Company.  No  more  beautiful  tribute  to 
his  memory  could  be  paid  than  that  of  Acrelius : 

He  loved  his  American  parishioners  even  until  his  death,  and  w^as  loved 
by  them  after  his  death,  so  that  the  people  got  into  a  habit,  which  they  still 
retain,  of  counting  their  age  from  his  time — the  older  ones  from  his  arrival 
in  the  country,  the  younger  ones  from  his  departure.  1 

1  Page  274. 


PASTOR  AUREN.  95 

Before  Auren,  who  had  come  over  with  Rudman  and 
Bjork  rather  as  a  surveyor  than  a  pastor,  had  completed 
his  maps,  and  could  return  according  to  the  royal  instruc- 
tions. King  Charles  XI.  died.  Auren  accordingly  remained. 
He  was  not  a  man  of  the  ability  or  sound  judgment  of  his 
two  companions,  although  the  testimonials  to  the  purity  of 
his  character  and  his  devotion  to  what  he  believed  to  be 
his  duty  are  most  ample.  In  a  little  pamphlet  called 
*'  Noah's  Dove  "  he  advocated  the  keeping  of  Saturday 
instead  of  Sunday ;  and  when  Bjork,  in  a  very  Christian 
way,  refuted  it  by  a  counter-pamphlet,  humbly  submitted, 
preaching  to  the  people  on  Sunday,  but  keeping  Saturday 
for  his  ovv^n  private  worship.  He  preached  up  to  1706  to 
both  Swedes  and  English  at  Elk  River  in  Maryland,  when 
he  took  charge  at  Racoon,  N.  J.,  Bjork  giving  only  a  pro- 
visional consent  to  the  arrangement,  *'  in  view  of  the  re- 
spect which  Mr.  Bjork  had  for  his  bishop,  with  whose  knowl- 
edge and  direction  he  wished  everything  to  be  done."^ 

1  Acrelius,  p.  321. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE    LUTHERANS    OF    NEW    SWEDEN    (170O-I742). 

One  of  the  most  interesting  facts  in  the  early  history  of 
the  Lutheran  Church  in  America  is  the  intimate  relation 
that  subsisted  between  the  representatives  of  the  various 
languages,  as  well  as  their  reciprocal  activity.  The  Swed- 
ish churches  in  their  extremity  had  been  cared  for  by  a 
German  pastor,  who  had  been  sent  to  this  country  by  the 
Dutch.  The  Dutch  churches,  in  turn,  had  been  served  by 
a  Swedish  pastor,  in  the  person  of  Rudman.  The  next 
move  is  the  ordination  of  a  German  by  the  Swedes  to 
serve  the  Dutch.  The  ordination  of  Justus  Falckner  in 
Gloria  Dei  Church,  November  24,  1 703,  is  the  most  im- 
portant event  in  the  pastorates  of  Rudman  and  Bj5rk. 

Justus  Falckner,  the  grandson  of  clergymen  on  both  sides 
of  the  house,  and  the  fourth  son  of  Rev.  Daniel  Falckner, 
Lutheran  pastor  at  Langenreindsdorf,  Crimmitschau,  and 
Zwickau,  Saxony,  was  born  November  22,  1672,  and  en- 
tered the  University  of  Halle  as  a  student  under  A.  H. 
Francke  in  1693.  While  a  student,  he  composed  a  hymn, 
which,  both  in  the  original  and  in  translations,  has  obtained 
wide  recognition:  ''Auf  ihr  Christen,  Christi  Glieder," 
known  in  English  as  "  Rise,  ye  children  of  salvation,"  ^  and 
"If  our  all  on  Him  we  venture," ^  whose  merit  is  duly 
acknowledged    in     Duffield    and    Thompson's     "English 

1  English  Presbyterian,  Psalms  and  Hymns  (1867),  Temple  Hymn-book 
(1867),  Laudes  Domini  (New  York,  1884). 

2  Moravian  Hymn-book,  1808,  1886. 


ORDINATION  OF  FALCKNER.  97 

Hymns."!  When  his  studies  were  completed,  he  shrank 
from  assuming  the  responsibilities  of  the  ministry,  and  in 
1 700  accompanied  his  older  brother,  Daniel,  to  Pennsyl- 
vania, as  a  land  agent  of  William  Penn.  The  next  year 
Rudman,  with  other  Swedes,  having  been  a  large  pur- 
chaser of  land  on  the  Manatawny,  this  business  transaction 
probably  brought  together  the  Swedish  pastor  and  the 
former  theological  student,  who  was  fleeing  from  the  office 
for  which  he  had  been  trained.  When,  therefore,  Rudman 
found  his  strength  failing,  and  the  necessity  of  immediate 
provision  for  the  Dutch  Church  in  New  York  was  urgent, 
he  appealed  to  Falckner.  The  answer  was,  that  he  was 
ready  to  accept  a  call,  but  that  he  must  not  be  expected 
to  preach  a  trial  sermon. 

Arrangements  w^ere  accordingly  made  for  the  ordination. 
The  officiating  ministers  were  Rudman,  Bjdrk,  and  Sandel, 
all  of  w^hom  signed  the  ordination  certificate.  Twenty- 
four  years  afterward,  when  this  was  cited  as  a  precedent, 
the  four  Swedish  pastors  disclaimed  the  authority  to  ordain, 
and  explained  the  ordination  of  Falckner  upon  the  ground 
that  Rudman  had  been  made  by  the  "  Archbishop  of 
Sweden"  "suffragan-  or  vice-bishop."-  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that,  by  a  commission  of  the  archbishop  and  con- 
sistory in  Upsala  of  November  7,  1739,  the  two  Swedish 
pastors  in  America,  Dylander  and  Tranberg,  were  directed 
to  ordain  to  the  ministry  William  Malander,  who  had  pre- 
viously been  a  schoolmaster — an  order  which  could  not  be 
carried  out  because  of  the  death  of  Dylander,  and  the  con- 
viction on  Tranberg's  part  that  he  was  without  authority 
alone  to  administer  ordination.  We  bring  these  facts  con- 
cerning the  ordinations  in  the  history  of  the  Swedish 
churches  together  in  order  that  their  position  may  be 
clearly  understood.     The  Swedish   pastors   could   ordain, 

1  Page  466.  2  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  new  edition,  p.  478. 


98  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  v. 

but  only  as  duly  authorized  to  do  so  from  Sweden,  and 
not  simply  according  to  their  own  judgment.  Falckner  at 
once  went  to  New  York,  preaching  there  for  the  first  time 
on  the  third  Sunday  in  Advent,  1 703.  His  subsequent 
activity  belongs  to  the  history  of  the  Dutch  and  not  the 
Swedish  Church  in  America. 

Sandel,  who  succeeded  Rudman  at  Gloria  Dei,  remained 
there  from  1702  to  17 19.  His  ministry,  as  well  as  that  of 
Bjork,  is  distinguished  for  the  intimate  relations  with  the 
neighboring  Episcopalians  which  begin  to  become  manifest. 
These,  it  appears,  were  promoted  by  the  earnest  advice  of 
the  great  friend  of  the  Swedish  churches.  Dr.  Svedberg. 
The  Swedish  pastors  were  habitual  attendants  of  their  pas- 
toral conferences.  In  the  absence  of  the  English  rectors, 
they  preached  in  their  pulpits.  On  the  fourth  Sunday 
after  Easter,  1712,  Rev.  George  Ross  of  the  English 
Church  preached  for  Rev.  Eric  Bjork  at  Wilmington, 
and  Rev.  Eric  Bjork  for  Rev.  George  Ross  at  Chester.^ 
When  a  cornerstone  was  laid  or  a  church  consecrated  by 
the  English,  the  Swedes  were  regularly  invited,  and  ac- 
cepted the  invitation.  While  Christ's  Church,  Philadel- 
phia, was  being  enlarged  in  17 10,  the  Sw^edes  arranged 
their  services  so  that  the  English  congregation  could  use 
the  building  every  Sunday  at  eleven  o'clock.  When,  in 
1 715,  a  Rev.  Mr.  Phillips  had  rendered  himself  very  ob- 
noxious to  his  congregation  generally,  Provost  Sandel,  at 
the  request  of  the  governor  and  of  the  English  clergy,  held 
an  English  service  for  two  months  and  preached  in  English 
after  the  close  of  his  Sunday  morning  service  in  Swedish. 
His  own  explanation  of  this  relation  is  interesting : 

Although  between  them  and  us  there  is  some  difference  with  respect  to  the 
Lord's  Supper,  yet  he  [Dr.  Svedberg]  does  not  want  that  small  difference  to 
rend  asunder  the  bond  of  peace.     We  do  not  attempt  any  discussion  upon  it ; 

1  Grabner,  p.  119. 


HESSELIUS.  99 

neither  do  we  touch  upon  such  things  when  we  preach  among  them,  nor  do 
they  attempt  to  persuade  our  people  to  their  opinion  in  this  respect ;  but  we 
live  on  intimate  and  fraternal  terms  with  one  another,  as  they  also  call  us 
their  brethren.  They  have  the  government  in  their  hands ;  we  are  under 
them ;  it  is  enough  that  they  want  to  have  this  intercourse  with  us  ;  we  can 
do  nothing  else  than  render  them  every  service  and  fraternal  favor,  as  long  as 
they  are  so  amiable  and  confiding,  and  have  not  sought  in  the  least  to  draw 
our  children  into  their  church.  As  our  church  is  called  by  them  the  "  sister- 
church  of  the  Church  of  England,"  so  we  live  fraternally  together.  God 
grant  that  this  may  long  continue,  i 

Andrew  Hessellus  (i  713-23),  who  succeeded  Bjork  at 
Wilmington,  was  a  nephew  of  Bishop  Svedberg,  and  im- 
mediately showed  much  ability  as  an  organizer.  He  made 
many  good  regulations  and  abolished  disorders,  and,  by 
most  specific  instructions  in  parish  meetings,  taught  the 
people  their  duties  as  to  prompt  attendance  at  church, 
bringing  children  to  baptism,  the  character  of  godfathers, 
regularity  in  attendance  on  the  Lord's  Supper,  betrothal 
and  marriage,  etc.  In  prayer,  all  were  taught  to  kneel ; 
but  in  singing  the  creed,  and  in  hearing  the  gospel  read, 
all  were  to  stand.  He  complained  of  the  singing  on  the 
part  of  some  of  his  members,  **  as  though  they  intended  to 
call  their  cows  to  the  church,"  and  took  much  pains  to  in- 
struct them,  passing  among  them  while  the  singing  was  in 
progress,  in  order  to  have  all  right.  He  translated  into 
English  a  book  of  his  uncle's,  which,  however,  was  not 
printed.  Nor  did  he  forget  the  Indians,  but  sought  every 
opportunity  to  convert  them ;  and  was  rewarded  by  the 
baptism  of  a  boy  whom  he  instructed,  but  who  soon  re- 
lapsed into  heathenism.  He  labored  amidst  the  discour- 
agement of  most  insufficient  support.  His  uncle  comforted 
him  with  the  Apostle's  rule :  ''  Having  food  and  raiment, 
let  us  be  therewith  content;"  but  was  answered  by  the 
question:  ''When  we  have  not  food  and  raiment,  what 
then?  "     Toward  the  close  of  his  stay  he  received  a  yearly 

1  Grabner,  p.  118,  from  the  MS.  of  Sandin. 


lOO  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  v. 

appropriation  of  ten  pounds  from  the  Society  for  the  Prop- 
agation of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  together  with  a 
like  sum  if  he  would  *'  perform  divine  service  and  preach 
in  the  English  language  .in  the  several  vacant  churches  in 
Pennsylvania,  at  least  twenty  times  in  one  year."^ 

How  was  it  possible  for  the  Swedish  churches  to  prosper 
when  men  like  Hesselius  were  being  constantly  lost  to  it 
by  their  insufficient  support?  His  companion  to  this 
country,  Lidenius,  succeeded  Auren  at  Racoon  and  Penns- 
neck,  N.  J.,  displayed  much  energy  in  building  a  church 
and  parsonage,  and,  ''greatly  beloved  for  his  zeal  and  pleas- 
ing manners,"  followed  Hesselius  in  the  succeeding  year, 
1724,  to  Sweden. 

In  I  719  Wicaco  received  from  the  generous  authorities 
in  Sweden  two  pastors,  while  it  had  only  support  for  one. 
The  difficulty  adjusted  itself :  the  elder,  Lidman,  remained 
with  them  for  ten  years,  while  the  younger,  Samuel  Hes- 
selius, another  nephew  of  Svedberg,  first  served  Nesh- 
aminy  and  Manathanim,  near  Pottstown,  Montgomery 
County,  Pa.,  and  finally  became  his  brother's  successor  at 
Wilmington  (1723-31),  and  returned  to  Sweden,  wearied 
and  disheartened  by  the  false  charges  brought  against 
him,  one  of  the  chief  of  which  was  that  he  neglected  his 
own  congregation  in  serving  the  English.^ 

With  the  age  and  infirmity  of  Bishop  Svedberg  "  the 
golden  age,"  says  Acrelius,  "  of  the  Swedish  Church  in 
, America  ceased." 

Passing  over  the  unfortunate  pastorate  of  Falck  at 
Wicaco,  except  to  note  that  he  was  fined  by  the  civil 
authorities  five  hundred  pounds  for  a  charge  he  made 
against  one  of  his  members  but  could  not  prove,  and  that 
his  entire  stay  was  but  one  year,  we  come  to  two  names 
distinguished  for  having  aided  very  materially  in  laying 

1  Acrelius,  p.  282  sq.  2  Acrelius,  pp.  285  sqq. 


DYLANDER.  lOI 

the  foundation  of  the  German  Lutheran  Church  in  Amer- 
ica. John  Eneberg  (born  1689)  had  studied  at  Upsala,  but 
before  the  time  for  his  ordination  had  come,  had  fled  to 
Norway.  He  was  in  London  in  i  729,  and  there  conceived 
the  thought  of  becorning  a  missionary  to  America.  As 
he  was  able  to  furnish  most  excellent  testimonials,  the  un- 
fortunate occurrence  which  had  caused  his  flight  ^  was  not 
permitted  to  hinder  his  ordination.  Svedberg,  then  Bish- 
op of  Skara,  commissioned  Rev.  Mr.  Norborg,  the  Swedish 
pastor  in  London,  to  ordain  Eneberg.  On  arriving  in 
America  he  was  at  first  without  a  place,  and  for  some 
time  was  occupied  preaching  to  the  scattered  Germans. 
He  also  supplied  the  Wicaco  church  temporarily,  but  did 
not  become  a  settled  pastor  until  1732,  when  he  succeeded 
Samuel  Hessehus  at  Christina.  Mr.  Eneberg,  while  serv- 
ing the  Germans,  was  unsuccessful  in  his  attempts  to 
preach  English.  How  unbusiness-like  the  methods  of  the 
congregation  were  may  be  learned  from  the  fact  that,  dur- 
ing the  last  four  years  of  his  service,  he  had  not  received 
a  cent  of  his  salary,  and  when  he  left,  some  of  the  church's 
land  had  to  be  sold  to  pay  the  accumulated  debt.  Ene- 
berg, who  was  a  bachelor,  had  lived  by  renting  out  the 
parsonage,  and  "  the  negress  who  had  been  purchased," 
and  finding  a  home,  from  house  to  house,  among  his 
members. 

Far  more  active  and  influential  was  John  Dylander.  who 
was  pastor  at  Wicaco  from  1737  to  his  death  in  1741, 
and  left  a  name  long  cherished  with  the  greatest  aff'ection 
throughout  the  entire  region.  Professor  Kalm,  who  trav- 
eled in  America  nearly  ten  years  afterward,  refers  to  him 
in  his  *'  Travels "  as  '*  the  everywhere  beloved  Swedish 
minister."  He  preached  in  three  languages  in  his  church. 
Matin  service  was  in  German,  **  high  mass"  in  Swedish, 

1  The  death  of  a  pupil  whom  he  had  chastised. 


I02  THE  LUTHERANS,  [Chap.  v. 

and  the  vesper  service  in  English.  He  became  so  popular 
with  the  English-speaking  people  that  the  English  rector 
complained  to  the  governor  of  the  weddings  which  Dy- 
lander  was  taking  from  him.  Kalm  states  that,  as  during 
the  week-days  he  visited  and  preached  among  various  set- 
tlements of  Germans,  it  often  happened  that  within  the 
week  he  preached  no  less  than  sixteen  times.  Among 
others  whom  he  served  were  the  Germans  of  Germantown. 
He  even  looked  after  the  interests  of  the  German  Luther- 
ans of  Lancaster.  Nor  did  he  care  only  for  the  German 
Lutherans,  but  also  for  the  German  Reformed  of  Philadel- 
phia, who,  together,  attended  the  German  service  in  Gloria 
Dei  Church.  At  his  death  his  funeral  sermon  was  preached 
in  English  by  Pastor  Tranberg,  because  of  the  large  num- 
bers of  persons  from  all  parts  of  the  country  and  of  various 
nationalities  who  were  present  to  do  him  honor.  One  of 
the  secrets  of  his  influence  is  found  in  his  having  thor- 
oughly identified  himself  with  the  Swedish-American  peo- 
ple by  his  marriage  with  the  daughter  of  the  most  promi- 
nent of  the  Swedish  laymen,  the  merchant  Peter  Kock 
(Cook),  who  afterward  was  of  the  greatest  aid  to  Muhlen- 
berg when  he  first  came  to  Philadelphia.  So  fully  are  the 
records  of  those  days  preserved  that  we  are  able  to  know 
even  the  books  which  the  pastors  had  at  hand  in  their 
studies ;  and  the  list  prepared  by  Dylander  shows  two 
copies  of  that  masterpiece  of  Lutheran  theology,  Ger- 
hardt's  *'  Loci  Theologici,"  as  well  as  Seckendorf's  clas- 
sical *'  History  of  Lutheranism."^ 

Still  another  pastor  of  this  transition  period  was  Rev. 
Peter  Tranberg,  who  for  fifteen  years  after  his  arrival 
was  pastor  at  Racoon  and  Pennsneck,  N.  J.,  and  married 
a  daughter  of  the  former  pastor,  Rudman.  When  in  1 740 
he  was  transferred  to  Christina,  it  was  with  an  opposition 

1  Grabner,  p.  144. 


INNER  HISTORY.  I03 

on  the  part  of  his  former  parish  that  amounted  to  bitter- 
ness, and  they  resoh'ed  henceforth  to  be  independent  of 
the  authorities  in  Sweden.  Under  his  pastorate,  EngHsh 
preaching  was  introduced  into  the  church  at  Christina. 
He  also  preached  in  German  and  administered  the  Lord's 
Supper  at  Lancaster,  and  was  "  in  travels  abundant."  His 
prudent  administration  of  his  private  resources  gave  him 
considerable  pecuniary  independence,  which  was  faithfully 
devoted  to  the  service  of  the  church.  He  was  stricken  at 
the  funeral  of  a  husband  and  wife,  in  his  first  charge,  and 
died  a  few  days  later,  in  1748,  greatly  lamented.  Rev. 
George  Ross  of  the  English  church  preaching  the  English, 
and  Rev.  Gabriel  Naesman,  the  Swedish  sermon.  Tran- 
berg  was  the  first  of  the  Swedish  Lutheran  ministers  whom 
Muhlenberg  met,  and  with  whom  he  cooperated.  As  will 
be  seen,  he  may  be  said  to  have  installed  Muhlenberg. 

Of  Sandin  and  Naesman,  who  participated  with  Muhlen- 
berg in  the  organization  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania, 
we  will  hear  later. 

Although  an  important  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 
Swedish  settlement  still  remains,  this  seems  a  fitting  place 
to  make  a  survey  of  some  of  the  features  of  the  inner  his- 
tory of  the  early  Swedish  churches.  In  it  we  will  neces- 
sarily have  to  anticipate  by  introducing  facts  drawn  from 
Acrelius,  who  minutely  describes  the  condition  of  the 
churches  of  his  time,  and  the  reforms  which  he  instituted. 

Owing  no  alliegance  to  the  King  of  Sweden  since  1655, 
when  the  Swedish  rule  gave  way  to  the  Dutch,  soon  to  be 
supplanted  in  turn  by  the  English,  the  king  nevertheless 
continued  to  exercise  his  authority  as  their  ecclesiastical 
head.  If  this  arrangement  was  entirely  broken  by  the 
occurrences  of  1655,  it  was  restored  when  the  three  pastors 
were  sent  to  America  in  1696.  The  king  was  their  chief 
bishop,  who  acted  either  through  the  Archbishop  of  Upsala 


I04  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  v. 

or  the  Bishop  of  Skara,  Svedberg,  in  the  care  of  these 
churches.  What  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  or  the 
Bishop  of  London  was  to  the  EngHsh  the  King  of  Sweden 
was  to  the  Swedish  settlers  and  their  descendants.  It  was, 
therefore,  only  an  outlying  station  of  a  foreign  church,  not 
at  home,  but  only  temporarily  sojourning  in  America,  that 
we  see  in  this  entire  history.  The  most  earnest  and  best 
trained  among  the  succession  of  devout  pastors  seems  never 
to  have  thought  about  taking  measures  to  secure  the  future 
independent  development  of  the  Swedish,  or  even  of  the 
Lutheran,  Church  in  America.  Whatever  Swedish  schools 
they  had — and  these  at  best  were  very  poor  ^ — were  in- 
tended, with  the  secular  branches  necessary  for  honorable 
livelihood,  to  give  nothing  more  than  the  elementary  relig- 
ious instruction  which  should  be  expected  at  confirmation. 
There  was  no  thought  of  providing  for  a  native  Swedish- 
American  ministry.  No  young  men  were  found  in  these 
congregations  and  sent  to  Sweden  to  be  prepared  for  the 
holy  office.  There  seems  to  have  been  an  entire  dearth  of 
laymen  capable  of  intelligently  participating  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  affairs  of  the  congregation,  until  we 
come  to  Peter  Kock,  who  has  been  above  mentioned. 
Eneberg  found  at  Christina  that  ''-of  the  vestrymen  and 
elders  of  the  parish,  there  was  scarcely  any  one  who 
could  write  his  own  name."^  The  authorities  in  Sweden 
sent,  transferred,  and  removed  pastors  at  pleasure.  Upon 
these  pastors  rested  the  great  burden,  not  only  of  looking 
after  the  spiritual  wants,  but  even,  to  a  great  extent,  the 
business  matters  of  the  congregation.  The  interest  of  the 
people  in  the  external  development  of  the  church  was  not 

1  "  Forty  years  back  our  people  scarcely  knew  what  a  school  was.  The 
first  Swedish  and  Holland  settlers  were  a  poor,  weak,  and  ignorant  people, 
who  brought  up  their  children  in  the  same  ignorance." — Acrelius,  p.  352. 

2  Acrelius,  p.  291. 


THE  PROVOSTSHIP.  I05 

cultivated,  except  when  the  overflooded  grounds  of  the 
churchyard  or  the  yielding  masonry  or  decaying  timbers 
gave  most  positive  ocular  demonstration  of  the  need  of 
prompt  action.  This  was  not  generally  because  of  poverty, 
since  those  settlers  were  as  a  rule  thrifty,  but  because  they 
were  taught,  in  religious  matters,  to  rely  upon  the  provision 
which  the  church  in  the  fatherland  was  making  for  them. 
They  preferred  to  sell  off  sections  of  their  land,  as  needed,  to 
pay  back  salaries,  rather  than  supply  the  wants  of  their  pas- 
tors according  to  a  regular  and  systematic  way.  The  results 
might  have  been  foreseen.  The  most  of  the  pastorates 
were  brief.  Young  men  were  willing  to  engage  in  the  work 
in  America  only  as  a  preparation  for  higher  places  at  home. 
The  most  earnest  among  them  sacrificed  their  lives  to  the 
abundance  of  their  labors.  Others,  as  their  families  grew, 
felt  constrained  to  petition  for  charges  in  Sweden.  Pastors, 
when  they  could  not  regard  themselves  permanent,  could 
not  throw  their  full  force  into  the  work  in  America  on  all 
its  sides,  or  take  the  widest  view  of  its  relations.  It  was 
enough  if,  in  addition  to  fidelity  in  the  pastoral  responsi- 
bilities of  their  own  people,  they  would  also  care  for  the 
immediate  spiritual  necessities  of  otherwise  uncared-for 
people  of  other  nationalities,  especially  when,  as  was  emi- 
nently proper,  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gos- 
pel in  Foreign  Parts  acknowledged  such  services  by  con- 
tributing toward  their  scanty  support. 

One  of  the  pastors  presided  over  the  rest  as  provost, 
who  was  also  called  "  superintendent,"  ^  made  his  visita- 
tions, examined  into  the  state  of  the  churches,  and  reported 
to  the  proper  authorities  in  Sweden.  In  succession,  until 
1730,  they  are  Rudman,  Bjork,  Sandel,  Andrew  Hesselius, 
and  Lidman.  After  an  interruption,  in  the  period  yet 
before  us,  Sandin,  Acrelius,  and  Wrangel  filled  the  office. 

1  Acrelius,  p.  363. 


I06  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  v. 

These  provosts  acted  simply  as  the  executives  of  the  au- 
thorities in  Sweden,  and,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  it 
required  about  a  year  to  receive  an  answer  from  across  the 
ocean  concerning  a  matter  reported,  they  were  required  to 
await  instructions.  In  three  cases  above,  it  has  been  seen 
that  the  Swedish  authorities  deemed  their  episcopal  sanc- 
tion for  ordination  sufficient,  and  directed  that  candidates 
be  ordained  by  the  provost  and  his  brother  ministers,  or, 
in  one  case,  by  the  pastor  in  London.  Among  the  instruc- 
tions to  Acrelius  in  1 749  is  one  enjoining  him  to  select  one 
of  the  German  pastors  in  America  to  install  him  as  provost, 
and  then  that,  as  provost,  with  the  assistance  of  the  German 
pastor,  he  should  install  the  church  officers.^  These  same 
instructions  are  introduced  with  the  obligation  neither  to 
accept  nor  teach  ''  any  other  doctrine  than  that  founded  in 
God's  holy  Word,  and  comprised  in  our  symbols  and  sym- 
bolical books.  "2 

The  provision  for  a  ''  church  council  "  in  these  congrega- 
tions, while  in  entire  harmony  with  what  became  the  estab- 
lished practice  in  Sweden  toward  the  close  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  was  probably  first  introduced  from  the 
Dutch  churches  in  New  York  by  Fabritius.^  While  the 
Swedish  pastors  of  the  first  period  had  no  precedent  in 
Sweden  to  follow  at  that  time,^  the  Dutch  Lutherans  had 
from   the  time  of   the  Reformation   in   Holland   had   this 

1  Section  11.      Norberg,  p.  214;  Griibner,  p.  349. 

2  Section  1.  Norberg,  p.  211  ;  Grabner,  p.  345.  "  lakttager  probsten  pa 
det  nogaste  alt  det,  hwartil'han  sig  genom  en  dyr  ed  forbundit  wid  sjelwa 
prediko-embetets  antagande  och  bor  isynnerhet  det  wara  honom  om  hjerat  alt 
hwarken  hos  sig  sjelf  hysa  eller  for  sina  ahorare  predika  nagon  ann  liira  an 
den  som  ar  grundat  i  Guds  hel.  ord  och  i  wara  symbola  och  symboliska  bocker 
forfattad :  hafwande  jemval  i  denna  matto  ett  behofligt  inseende  pa  dem  som 
hans  medbroder  aro  i  embetet." 

3  "  Organization  of  the  Congregations  in  the  Early  Lutheran  Churches  in 
America,"  by  B.  M.  Schmucker,  D.D.  (Philadelphia,  1887),  p.  6. 

4  See  above,  chap,  iv.,  p.  75. 


THE   CHURCH  COUNCIL.  io; 

organization  in  its  fully  developed  form.  As  we  find  it 
mentioned,  during  the  pastorate  of  Fabritius  in  1684,  the 
conclusion  is  irresistible  that  he  organized  his  Swedish  after 
the  model  of  his  former  Dutch  congregation.  Under  date 
of  August  loth,  *'  the  churchwardens  "  appeal  to  their  breth- 
ren of  the  parish  for  the  salary  and  support  of  their  blind 
and  aged  pastor.  When  Rudman  came  in  1702,  he  "in- 
stalled the  new  churchwardens  and  vestrymen,  and  at  the 
same  time  explained  to  each  their  duties."^  The  vestry- 
men had  the  oversight  of  the  church  property  and  the  lives 
of  the  people.  Where  any  required  pastoral  admonition,  it 
was  their  duty  to  report  them  to  the  pastor,  and,  with  the 
concurrence  of  the  pastor,  to  bring  such  cases  as  would  not 
yield  to  this  treatment,  before  the  church  council.  The 
churchwardens  took  up  the  collections,  paid  the  pastor's 
salary,  provided  for  the  poor,  etc.  There  is  some  confu- 
sion, as,  from  later  accounts,  the  offices  of  vestrymen  and 
elders  are  distinct.^  Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  Rudman 
returned  to  the  service  of  the  Swedish  churches  as  provost, 
after  having  been  pastor  of  the  New  York  Dutch  churches 
for  a  time,  and  participated  in  church  council  meetings  with 
the  three  classes  of  lay  officials  of  those  congregations.^ 
Tn  later  years,  the  institution  of  church  trustees,  according 
to  the  law  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  involved 
the  Swedish  congregations  in  no  little  trouble.^  Once  the 
church  council  at  Christina  determined  to  be  independent 
of  its  pastor  in  its  business  affairs,  upon  the  suggestion  of 
an  agent,  who  '*  advised  the  vestry  never  to  allow  any  of 
their  priests  to  look  into  their  management,"  with  the  re- 
sult that  the  adviser  so  managed  their  business  that  he  soon 
became  the  owner  of  '*  some  of  the  best  lots  that  had  be- 


1  Acrelius,  p.  215.  2  Acrelius,  pp.  232,  291. 

3  Grabner,  p.  88.  4  For  details,  see  Acrelius,  p.  249 


I08  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  v. 

longed  to  the  congregation."  ^  The  congregations  imposed 
fines  upon  their  members,-  and  determined  the  modes  of 
payment  of  diies.^ 

In  Sandel's  time  at  Wicaco  (1702-19)  there  were  two 
services  (matins  and  *'  higli  mass  ")  every  Sunday  morning. 
At  the  matin  service  a  sermon  was  preached  on  the  cate- 
chism, and  between  that  and  the  second  service  the  teacher 
went  through  tlie  aisles  and  examined  the  people  on  the 
sermon.  At  the  second  service  the  full  order  then  used 
by  the  Swedish  church  was  followed."^  Dylander's  efforts 
to  provide  for  the  three  languages  caused  some  changes ; 
but  Sandel's  order  was  restored  by  Naesman  in  1 743. ^ 
"The  genuine  Swedes,"  says  Acrelius,^  "are  greatly  at- 
tached to  their  church  usages ;  and  many  English  would 
be  more  pleased  with  the  Swedish  than  with  the  English 
church  service,  if  they  understood  the  language."  The 
minister  was  robed.  The  creed  was  sung.  The  crucifix 
in  the  churches  was  rejected  as  something  that  "  should 
not  even  be  talked  of."  Hymn-boards  were  introduced 
into  the  churches  in  Acrelius's  time  with  good  results."^ 
The  delay  in  bringing  infants  to  baptism  until  they  were 
six  or  seven  weeks  old  was  greatly  deplored  by  several  of 
the  pastors,  as  well  as  the  growing  disuse  of  sponsorship, 
and  the  prejudice  derived  from  Presbyterians  and  Episco- 
palians against  noth-taufe,  or  the  baptism  of  children  by 
laymen  when  they  are  in  immediate  peril  of  death.*^  The 
massive  baptismal  font  still  in  Gloria  Dei  Church,  we  were 
told  on  the  spot,  used  to  stand  just  outside  of  the  church 
door,  as  a  solemn  reminder  of  how  we  enter  the  church. 
The  old  custom  of  the  churching  of  women  had  maintained 
itself  with  more  firmness  than  many  other  good  customs. 

1  Acrelius,  p.  391.  2  Page  217.  ^  Page  229. 

4  Page  218.  5  Page  243.  ^  Page  359. 

■7  Page  302.  »  Page  354. 


THE   LANGUAGE   QUESTION.  IO9 

All  Other  difficulties  seemed  to  be  overshadowed  by  that 
of  the  language  question.  On  this  we  may  hear  the  good 
provost  himself: 

Sometimes  it  is  concluded  in  the  vestry  that  no  more  English  preaching 
shall  be  held,  no  English  any  more  be  buried  in  the  graveyard.  Then  the 
minister  and  church  officers  are  decried  as  persons  who  regard  all  English 
heathen.  They  think  that  it  is  a  failure  in  duty  to  water  one  part  of  the 
Lord's  vineyard  to  overflowing,  while  many  other  parts  wither  and  die.  So 
this  must  be  changed  again.  One  will  have  his  child  baptized  in  English, 
another  in  Swedish,  at  one  and  the  same  hour  in  the  church.  Some  refuse 
to  stand  as  sponsors  if  the  child  is  not  baptized  in  Swedish,  and  yet  it  may 
be  that  the  other  sponsors  do  not  understand  it.  One  woman  who  is  to  be 
churched  will  have  Swedish ;  the  other,  English ;  and  this  at  the  same  time. 
When  funeral  sermons  are  preached,  English  people  of  every  form  of  faith 
come  together,  and  then  it  often  happens  that  the  one  desires  preaching  in 
English,  the  other  in  Swedish,  and  that  just  as  the  minister  is  going  into  the 
church.  1 

No  better  indication  of  the  high  character  and  literary 
ability  of  the  men  who  were  sent  from  Sweden  to  America 
can  be  given  than  the  books  written  on  the  subject  by 
those  connected  with  the  Swedish  churches.  The  grand- 
son of  Campanius  and  the  son  of  Bjork,  the  great  patron 
of  the  mission,  Bishop  Svedberg,  Provost  Acrelius,  and 
Professor  Kalm,  who  married  the  widow  of  Provost  Sandin, 
all  published  books  treating  either  exclusively  or  with 
great  fullness  on  the  subject.  The  still  later  Provost  Von 
Wrangel  wrote,  according  to  a  letter  to  Muhlenberg,  a 
"  History  of  the  German  Lutheran  Congregations  in  Amer- 
ica," which  he  had  sent  to  the  press,  but  which,  except  for 
the  several  references  of  its  preparation,  is  unknown.- 

1  Page  361.  2  Mann,  p.  512. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE    FIRST    GERMAN    LUTHERANS    IN    AMERICA. 

It  will  not  be  necessary  to  trace  the  history  of  German 
Lutheranism  as  we  come  to  the  introduction  of  its  repre- 
sentatives to  America.  Not  only  are  its  leading  facts  more 
generally  known,  but  its  details  would  carry  us  into  so  many 
different  fields  as  we  would  trace  its  varieties  in  the  various 
States  and  principalities,  that  we  would  be  carried  far  from 
our  subject.  America  had  been  discovered  nearly  two  hun- 
dred years  before  the  German  immigration  began.  Be- 
fore the  eighteenth  century,  it  is. probable  that  the  entire 
number  of  those  who  had  been  brought  hither  might  be 
placed  upon  an  ordinary  steamer  of  the  present  day. 

William  Penn  was  the  instigator  of  German  immigration. 
As  a  zealous  propagandist  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Quakers, 
he  had  visited  Germany  in  1671  and  1677,  and  tarried  at 
centers  where  converts  had  been  made  by  the  efforts  of 
preceding  missionaries.  He  had  found  German  Quakers 
in  Lubeck  and  Embden  and  Frankfort,  and  preached  to 
a  small  congregation  at  Kriegsheim,^  near  Worms.  The 
proclamation  of  1681,  inviting  settlers  to  Pennsylvania,  and 
stating  the  conditions  of  immigration,  was  immediately 
translated  into  German  and  circulated  in  Germany.  In  1682 
a  Frankfort  company  purchased  twenty-five  thousand  acres 
of  land  from  Penn,  and  in  the  succeeding  year  the  agent  of 
this  company,  a  young  jurist,  Pastorius,  who,  as  also  nearly 

1  The  name  is  perpetuated  in  the  Cresheim  Creek,  -within  a  short  distance 
of  where  we  now  write,  at  Mount  Airy,  a  northern  portion  of  Germantown. 

110 


THE   SETTLERS   OF  GERMANTOIVN.  I  I  I 

all  the  members  of  the  Frankfort  Company,  is  said  to  have 
been  an  adherent  of  Spener,  came  with  his  family  and  a 
few  associates  to  Pennsylvania,  "  in  order,"  as  he  said,  "  to 
lead  a  quiet  and  Christian  life."  The  town  was  laid  out  as 
Germantown  (Germanopolis),  now  a  part  of  Philadelphia, 
in  1685,  and  incorporated  in  1689.  Within  five  years  fifty 
houses  had  been  erected.  It  became  a  center  for  German 
Quakers,  Mennonites,  and  various  forms  of  religious  ex- 
travagance, as  represented  by  the  erratic  preacher,  Koster. 
About  the  year  1700  there  were  several  German  hermits 
along  the  Wissahickon,  of  whom  Kelpius  was  the  most 
prominent.  The  only  Lutheran  at  this  settlement  of  whom 
we  read  was  Daniel  Falckner,  who  came  with  the  ''  hermits  " 
in  1694,  the  older  brother  of  Justus  Falckner,  and  who, 
after  becoming  a  land  agent  of  the  Frankfort  Company, 
toward  the  close  of  his  life  became  pastor  of  Lutheran 
congregations  in  New  Jersey.  The  church  at  Falckner's 
Swamp  (New  Hanover)  is  thought  to  date  from  the  year 
1703.1  Muhlenberg  mentions  a  few  Platt-Deutsch  from 
the  neighborhood  of  Cleves  who  came  to  this  country  be- 
tween 1680  and  1708. 

The  immigration  which  concerns  this  history  began  in 
earnest  about  1 708.  The  causes  determining  it  were  mani- 
fold. The  division  of  Germany  into  many  petty  prin- 
cipaHties  weakened  greatly  the  national  feeling,  and  gave 
more  opportunity  for  arbitrary  power  on  the  part  of  rulers 
within,  and  for  oppression  from  those  without  each  State. 
The  Thirty  Years'  War  had  depleted  some  neighborhoods 
of  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  population  and  property.  While 
the  central,  northern,  and  eastern  parts  of  Germany  were 
able  to  recover  rapidly  from  these   ravages,  the  western 

1  The  details  concerning  Justus  Falckner's  ordination  and  his  immediate  de- 
parture to  New  York  brought  to  light  by  new  documentary  evidence  obtained 
by  Professor  Grabner,  leave  no  room  for  his  pastorate  at  the  "Swamp." 


112  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  vi. 

frontier  and  the  valley  of  the  Rhine  and  its  tributaries  were 
kept  in  a  constant  state  of  desolation,  either  from  actual 
war,  or  from  the  alarm  and  uncertainty  almost  as  paralyzing 
as  invasion  itself.  These  provinces  were  made  the  battle- 
grounds or  the  tributaries  of  France,  subject  to  exacting- 
levies  of  money  and  to  cruel  conscriptions.  Especially  was 
the  Rhenish  Palatinate,  one  of  the  fairest  portions  of  Ger- 
many, the  object  of  the  rapacity  and  cruelty  of  the  unprin- 
cipled king,  Louis  XIV.,  and  his  general,  Turenne.  It  has 
been  well  said  :  *'  To  this  date,  from  Drachenfels  to  Heidel- 
berg, the  line  of  march  is  marked  by  crumbling  walls,  ruined 
battlements,  and  blown-up  towers."^  Severe  winters  and 
failures  of  harvest  were  added.  Pastorius  was  active  in  the 
publication  and  circulation  of  documents  in  Germany  set- 
ting forth  the  advantages  offered  to  emigrants  in  the  New 
World.  Other  land  agents  emulated  him.  The  thought 
of  fortunes  to  be  gained,  instead  of  their  repeated  disap- 
pointments, inspired  the  more  sanguine,  in  whom  the  relig- 
ious motive  was  absent. 

An  advance  band  from  Wolfenbiittel  and  Halberstadt, 
diverted  from  their  goal.  New  York,  reached  and  settled 
German  Valley,  N.  J.,  in  I  707.  The  same  year  the  Luther- 
an pastor  at  Landau,  Kocherthal,  left  his  home  with  sixty- 
one  persons,  knowing  scarcely  whither  to  go.  The  English 
residents  of  Frankfort  provided  for  their  transportation  to 
England,  where  they  were  kindly  received  by  Queen  Anne 
and  others.  In  deciding  as  to  their  future  disposition  the 
first  thought  was  to  send  them  to  Jamaica  or  Antigua ; 
but  at  last  they  embarked  for  New  York.  They  were  first 
naturalized  as  English  subjects,  a  handsome  present  was 
made  to  the  pastor,  five  hundred  acres  of  land  were  set 
apart  for  their  church,  for  which  also  the  queen  furnished 

1  "  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History,"  vol.  x.,  p.  250. 


ON   THE  HUDSON.  II3 

a  bell,  and  tools  were  given  for  the  colonists.  On  the  last 
day  of  1 708  they  found  a  welcome  in  America,  the  gov- 
ernor of  New  York,  Lord  Lovelace,  being  particularly 
friendly.  Twenty-one  hundred  acres  of  land  north  of  West 
Point  being  allotted  them,  they  called  their  new  home 
Newburg.  The  death  of  the  governor,  and  the  separation 
from  them  of  a  small  band  on  the  charge  of  Pietism,  were 
followed  in  June,  1709,  by  a  trip  of  the  pastor  to  England, 
in  order  to  confer  with  the  queen  concerning  the  future  of 
his  people. 

Meanwhile  the  generosity  of  the  queen  was  taxed  to  the 
utmost.  The  numbers  vary  in  different  accounts,  but  the 
estimate  is  from  ten  to  twenty  thousand  of  Palatinates 
who  managed  in  some  way  to  reach  England  that  year,  to 
the  great  astonishment  of  its  inhabitants,  in  the  expectation 
that  the  government  would  provide  for  their  transportation 
to  America.  A  large  camp  for  their  accommodation. was 
opened  at  Greenwich.  Within  a  year  six  thousand  had  left 
Heidelberg  and  its  immediate  vicinity.  Alarmed  at  the 
depletion  of  his  province,  the  Elector  Palatinate  felt  con- 
strained to  publish  an  order  threatening  with  death  those 
who  would  without  due  authority  thus  abandon  his  domain. 
Those  not  Protestants  were  returned  to  their  homes. 
Thirty-eight  hundred  were  settled  in  Munster,  Ireland,  near 
Limerick.  Seven  hundred  were  taken  by  the  Carolina 
Company,  and  founded  New  Berne,  N.  C.  Three  thousand 
more,  in  ten  vessels,  accompanied  Kocherthal  on  his  return 
voyage  in  1710.  Nearly  eight  hundred  died  on  the  way, 
or  of  ship  fever  shortly  after  landing.  They  were  tempo- 
rarily quartered  on  Governor's  Island,  and  divided  into  ten 
sections,  each  under  a  leader.  In  the  autumn  arrangements 
were  made  with  Robert  Livingstone  for  settling  them  some 
one  hundred  miles  up  the  Hudson,  at  the  foot  of  the  Cats- 


114  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  vi. 

kills,  at  West,  and  also  for  a  time  at  East,  Camp.  Before 
the  winter  was  upon  them  a  church  and  schoolhouse  had 
been  erected. 

The  dream  of  the  Palatinates  was  realized :  they  had 
found  a  home  to  replace  that  of  their  vine-clad  hills.  But 
they  had  not  left  the  cross  behind  them.  They  were  un- 
prepared for  the  rigorous  winter.  They  not  only  suffered 
severely,  but  were  dissatisfied  with  the  treatment  they 
received  from  Governor  Hunter  and  Livingstone.  The 
Palatinates  were  skillful  farmers  and  vine-growers  ;  Hunter 
and  Livingstone  had  located  them  with  a  view  to  the 
manufacture  of  tar  and  other  products  to  be  obtained  from 
the  forests.  They  begged  to  be  sent  to  Schoharie,  to 
which  place  the  queen  had  intended  they  should  go,  and 
made  provision  in  a  treaty  with  the  Lidians.  The  author- 
ities were  inflexible ;  but  the  Palatinates  were  determined. 
They  sent  their  agents  into  the  Schoharie  country,  and 
arranged  the  terms  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Indians.  Mean- 
while the  attempt  to  force  them  to  confine  their  work  to 
what  Livingstone  had  intended  proved  vain ;  the  thirty 
thousand  barrels  of  tar  that  had  been  expected  of  the  col- 
onists, as  a  return  for  the  expense  to  which  the  government 
had  gone,  amounted,  all  told,  to  only  two  hundred.  In 
October,  17 12,  several  hundred  moved  to  Schoharie  with- 
out the  permission  of  the  authorities ;  in  March,  through 
deep  snow,  they  were  followed  by  others.  By  the  friend- 
ship of  the  Indians,  they  were  able  to  subsist  throughout 
the  hardships  of  that  winter.  In  order  to  obtain  a  clear 
title  to  the  land,  a  delegation  was  sent  to  England  in  17 18 
to  confer  with  the  government.  One  of  the  members  of 
this  commission  was  John  Conrad  Weiser,  father  of  the 
afterward  distinguished  Indian  agent  and  father-in-law  of 
Muhlenberg,  Conrad  Weiser.  Captured  by  pirates  and  im- 
prisoned in  England  for  debt,  it  was  not  until  1723  that  he 


SCHOHARIE  AND    TULPEHOCKEN.  I  I  5 

returned  from  his  vain  mission.  His  health  was  greatly 
shattered  by  his  trials. 

Meanwhile  the  loss  of  the  colony  under  Kocherthal  had 
been  partially  made  up  by  other  immigrants.  Both  branches 
extended,  the  one  along  the  Hudson  to  Rhinebeck  on  the 
eastern,  and  Esopus,  Kingston,  New  Paltz,  etc.,  on  the  west- 
ern side  of  the  Hudson;  the  other  branch,  to  the  present 
Middleburg  (then  known  as  Weisersdorf)  and  to  Palatine 
Bridge  in  the  Mohawk  Valley,  and  to  Cobleskill.  The  colony 
of  New  York  no  longer  favoring  the  German  immigration, 
the  current  about  1 7 1 2  turned  to  Pennsylvania.  A  portion 
also  of  the  Schoharie  colony,  in  1723,  under  the  guidance 
of  friendly  Indians,  floated  three  hundred  miles  down  the 
Susquehanna,  and  located  in  Tulpehocken.  There  they 
were  joined  in  i  729  by  the  younger  Conrad  Weiser,  the 
father  remaining  at  Schoharie,  until  near  the  close  of  his 
life,  in  1745,  when  he  followed  his  son,  and  conferred  with 
Muhlenberg  as  a  spiritual  adviser. 

The  Palatinates  were  not  all  Lutherans.  That  unfortu- 
nate province  was  agitated  by  almost  as  many  ecclesiastical 
as  poUtical  changes.  Not  until  1545  was  the  Reformation 
formally  introduced  by  Frederick  H.,  and  that,  too,  **  more 
from  external  constraint  than  from  inward  conviction." 
Otto  Henry,  his  nephew,  who  succeeded  him  in  1556  and 
held  the  government  for  three  years,  was  a  decided  Luther- 
an, and  his  activity  encountered  much  resistance  among 
the  people.  Frederick  HI.,  his  successor,  a  man  of  great 
ability  and  positive  character,  was  just  as  determined  in  his 
adherence  and  advocacy  of  the  Reformed  faith.  It  was  at 
his  suggestion  and  under  his  auspices  that  the  Heidelberg 
Catechism  was  composed,  mediating  between  Calvinism 
and  Lutheranism,  his  friends  claiming  that,  through  Ursi- 
nus,  a  pupil  of  Melanchthon,  it  is  in  general  harmony  with 
Melanchthon's  later  position  as  contrasted  with  Luther's. 


Il6  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  vi. 

"  He  was  the  first  German  prince,"  says  Dr.  Schaff,  ''  who 
professed  the  Reformed  creed,  as  distinct  from  the  Luther- 
an.i"  Under  him  the  Lutheran  orders  of  service  were 
aboHshed,  and  none  but  Reformed  members  introduced 
into  the  consistories. 

But  the  eldest  son  and  successor  of  Frederick  III.  (1576- 
83)  was  a  Lutheran,  who  dismissed  Reformed  professors 
and  pastors,  reintroduced  the  Lutheran  worship,  and  insisted 
on  conformity  with  the  Formula  of  Concord.  Again  there 
was  a  change,  when  John  Casimir  became  regent,  and 
showed,  though  less  decidedly,  his  Reformed  feeling.  His 
successor  was  an  advocate  of  church  union  as  the  most  ef- 
fectual mode  of  resisting  the  growing  Catholic  power,  which, 
during  its  dominancy  in  the  darker  days  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  denied  to  the  rightful  elector  the  exercise  of 
his  authority,  but  held  it  in  the  interest  of  hostility  to  both 
Lutheran  and  Reformed.  The  effect  of  the  Peace  of  Osna- 
briick  was  the  toleration  of  both  religious  parties.  \\\  gen- 
eral, the  character  of  the  Palatinate  theology,  on  both  sides, 
is  conciliatory  and  mediating ;  a  tendency  greatly  strength- 
ened by  the  life-and-death  struggle  through  which  both 
confessions  in  the  Palatinate  had  to  pass  during  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  as  well  as  by  the  scenes  which  followed  the 
revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  in  1685. 

The  two  confessions  came  into  this  country  alongside  of 
each  other,  as  they  have  subsisted  ever  since  in  a  large 
number  of  parishes  in  Pennsylvania.  Thus,  at  Newburg, 
alongside  of  Pastor  Kocherthal  was  the  German  Reformed 
pastor,  John  Frederick  Hager,  whom  he  married. 

Of  much  interest  are  two  memorials  of  Kocherthal,  for 
which  we  are  indebted  to  the  industrious  researches  of  Pro- 
fessor Grabner.  One  is  the  title  of  his  '*  Church  Book," 
which  begins :    "  Church  Book  of  the  Church  of  the  Ger- 

1  "  Creeds  of  Christendom,"  vol.  i.,  p.  532. 


KOCHERTHAL. 


117 


mans  who  Embrace  the  Augsburg  Confession."  The  bap- 
tismal register  in  it  begins :  "  Catalogue  of  the  infants  who 
were  baptized  by  me,  Joshua  Kocherthal,  first  pastor  of  the 
Germans  in  New  York." 

The  other  is  his  tombstone  at  West  Camp,  N.  Y.,  under 
the  shadow  of  the  Overlook  Mountain,  on  which  there  was 
legible  in  1891  the  inscription: 

Know,  pilgrim,  that  under  this  stone  rests,  alongside  of  his  Sibylla  Char- 
lotte, a  true  pilgrim,  who  was  the  Joshua  of  the  High  Germans  in  America, 
and  a  pure  Lutheran  preacher  to  them,  both  on  the  west  and  the  east  side 
of  the  Hudson  River.  His  first  arrival  was  with  Lord  Lovelace,  January  i, 
1708.  His  second  with  Colonel  Hunter,  June  14,  1710.  His  journey  to 
England  intervened.  The  heavenly  journey  of  his  soul  occurred  on  St.  John's 
Day,  1 719.  If  you  would  know,  seek  in  the  fatherland  of  Melanchthon,  who 
was  Kocherthal,  who  Horschias,  who  Winchenbach.  B.  Berkenmayer.  S. 
Heurtein.     L.  Brevort,  MDCCXLIL 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE    DUTCH    CHURCHES    FROM    FALCKNER   TO 
MUHLENBERG. 

We  return  to  Justus  Falckner  and  the  Dutch  congrega- 
tions in  New  York  and  Albany,  for  which  he  was  ordained 
by  the  Swedish  pastors.  The  congregation  in  New  York 
we  find  very  soon  appeahng  to  the  Swedes  for  aid  in 
building  a  new  church.  A  similar  appeal  to  the  Dutch  on 
the  island  of  St.  Thomas  met  with  a  prompt  and  generous 
response. 

The  territory  covered  by  Falckner's  labors  was  very 
great.  It  centered  about  two  points,  New  York,  to  which 
he  devoted  the  summer,  and  Alban}^,  to  which  he  devoted 
the  winter,  each  of  them  including  from  six  to  eight  out- 
lying posts,  where  there  were  natives  of  Holland  or  their 
descendants  to  be  served.  With  the  coming  of  the  Palati- 
nates an  additional  care  was  imposed  on  him.  His  church 
records  were  kept  in  a  unique  way,  it  being  his  habit  to 
write  a  brief  prayer  after  every  important  entry.  We  can- 
not be  too  grateful  to  Professor  Grabner  for  the  discovery 
and  preservation  of  a  number  of  these  most  beautiful  and 
devout  prayers.'^  He  closes  the  record  of  his  first  day's 
work  with  the  following,  in  classical  Latin : 

God,  the  Father  of  all  goodness,  and  Lord  of  Great  Majesty,  who  hast 
forced  me  into  this  harvest,  grant  unto  me,  thy  humble  and  very  weak 
laborer,  thy  special  grace,  without  which  I  must  perish  under  the  burden  of 
temptations  which  frequently  overwhelm  me.     In  thee,  O  Lord,  have  I  put 

1  "  History,"  pp.  94-96. 
118 


FALCKNER'S  RECORDS.  II9 

my  trust ;  let  me  not  be  confounded.  Render  me  fit  for  my  calling.  I  have 
not  run,  but  thou  hast  sent  me ;  thou  hast  forced  me  into  the  office.  Mean- 
while, M^hatever,  without  my  knowledge,  a  corrupt  nature  has  introduced 
within  me,  forgive  and  pardon  me,  humbly  praying  thee,  through  our  Lord, 
yea,  through  my  Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 

To  the  record  of  three  baptisms  at  Hackensack  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1704,  he  adds  that  of  one  of  the  ''Van  Boskerk  " 
family  in  New  York  in  the  following  April,  and  writes : 

O  Lord,  Lord,  may  this  child,  with  the  three  above-recorded  Hackensack 
children,  be  written  and  remain  in  the  Book  of  Life,  through  Jesus  Christ. 
Amen. 

Other  prayers,  in  true  collect  form,  run : 

O  God,  may  this  child  be  and  remain  a  child  of  everlasting  salvation, 
through  Christ. 

O  God,  let  this  child  be  included  and  remain  in  thy  eternal  favor,  through 
Christ. 

O  Lord,  we  commend  this  child  unto  thee,  for  both  temporal  and  eternal 
welfare,  through  Christ. 

O  my  God,  may  this  child  be  and  remain  a  member  of  thy  kingdom  of  grace 
and  glory,  through  Christ. 

Let  this  child  taste  and  enjoy  thy  sweet  love  and  grace  in  time  and  in  eter- 
nity.    Amen. 

An  entry  of  an  infant  baptism  shows  us  that  at  this 
early  period  there  were  even  negro  Lutherans  in  America, 
and  that  Falckner  had  admitted  some  into  his  New  York 
congregation.  In  1 704  he  baptized  *'  Maria,  the  young 
daughter  of  Are  of  Guinea,  a  negro,  and  his  wife  Jora,  both 
Christians  of  our  congregation,"  and  prayed: 

Lord,  merciful  God,  thou  who  regardest  not  the  persons  of  men,  but,  in 
every  nation,  he  that  feareth  thee  and  doeth  right  is  accepted  before  thee ; 
clothe  this  child  with  the  white  garment  of  innocence  and  righteousness,  and 
let  it  so  remain,  through  Jesus  Christ,  the  Redeemer  and  Saviour  of  all  men. 
Amen. 

Five  children  born  to  destitute  Palatinate  emigrants  on 
the  ocean  were  baptized  by  Falckner  during  their  stay  in 


120  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  vil. 

huts  on  Governor's  Island.     What  can  be  more  appropriate 
and  touching  than  this  prayer  for  the  homeless  ones? 

Lord,  Almighty  God  and  Father  in  Christ  Jesus,  who,  by  thy  wondrous 
power,  hast  so  ordered  it  that  these  children  were  born  upon  the  great  and 
dreadful  ocean,  lead  them,  by  thy  grace,  through  the  tempestuous  sea  of  this 
world,  that,  at  last,  they  may  all  arrive  at  the  haven  of  the  New  Jerusalem, 
where  all  tyranny  and  all  tyrannical,  false  mercy  shall  have  an  end,  through 
Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 

Again,  after  recording  the  baptisms  of  an  entire  year,  he 
writes : 

Let  not  one  of  the  names  above  written  be  blotted  out  of  thy  Book ;  but  let 
them  be  written  and  remain  therein,  through  Jesus  Christ,  thy  dear  Son. 
Amen. 

Similar  prayers  concerning  confirmations  and  marriages 
are  also  given,  showing  how  the  faithful  pastor  kept  in  view 
the  wants  and  cares  and  temptations  and  sorrows  of  each 
individual  to  whom  God  called  him  to  minister,  and  carried 
them  in  prayer  before  the  throne  of  grace.  They  show  the 
tender  and  even  sensitive  heart  of  one  who,  not  for  worldly 
considerations,  but  from  his  dread  of  the  great  responsibili- 
ties of  the  ministerial  office,  had  shrunk  from  assuming  them, 
until  the  call  was  too  urgent  and  direct  to  be  neglected ;  as 
well  as  the  cultivated  style  and  fervor  of  an  approved  hymn- 
writer.  He  stood  in  friendly  relations  with  Kocherthal, 
whose  daughter  he  baptized,  and  whom  he  succeeded.  It 
was  probably  only  to  meet  necessities  which  otherwise  could 
not  be  provided  that  he  assumed  temporary  charge  of  his 
churches.  He  was  married,  when  he  had  nearly  completed 
the  fourteenth  year  of  his  pastorate,  by  Rev.  William  Vesey 
of  the  English  Church.  In  the  later  years  of  his  Hfe  his 
home  was  at  Claverack,  as  a  convenient  center  for  his  parish, 
which  had  a  length  of  from  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
to  two  hundred  miles.  We  find  him  energetically  pursuing 
his  work  up  to  the  time  of  his  death  in  the  autumn  of  1 723, 


BERKENME  YER.  I  2  I 

at  the  age  of  fifty-one  years.  His  elder  brother,  Daniel, 
who  had  become  pastor  of  Dutch  congregations  in  New- 
Jersey  in  and  about  Raritan,  was,  in  1724,  a  temporary 
supply  for  both  the  Dutch  and  German  churches  along  the 
Hudson.  For  many  years  the  ministry  of  Daniel  Falckner 
had  been  forgotten,  and  Justus  Falckner  was  accordingly 
credited  with  many  references  made  in  contemporary  docu- 
ments to  Daniel. 

Falckner,  besides  being  a  laborious  pastor,  found  time 
to  prepare  and  publish  in  1708  a  handbook  of  Christian 
doctrine  in  questions  and  answers.  It  was  highly  com- 
mended by  Loscher,  one  of  the  most  prominent  Lutheran 
theologians  of  that  time  in  Germany,  as  an  *'Anti-Calvin- 
istic  compendium  of  doctrine." 

Upon  the  death  of  Falckner  the  New  York  congregation 
sent  one  of  their  members  to  Amsterdam  to  petition  the 
Lutheran  Consistorium  to  provide  a  new  pastor  for  them, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  collect  for  a  new  church  building. 
It  is  interesting  to  read  attached  to  his  credentials  the 
well-known  names  of  Beekman  and  Van  Buskirk.  The 
consistorium  determined  to  call  from  Hamburg  William 
Christopher  Berkenmeyer,  who,  while  at  first  disinclined  to 
accept  it,  after  a  severe  illness,  in  which  he  vowed  that,  in 
case  he  would  recover,  he  would  no  longer  refuse,  was 
ordained  in  Amsterdam,  May  24,  1725,  and  set  out  for  his 
field  of  labor.  Berkenmeyer  was  a  man  of  mature  age, 
having  been  born  in  1686  at  Bodenteich  in  Liineburg,  and 
studied  at  Altdorf,  near  Nuremberg — a  university  united 
with  Erlangen  in  1809 — while  Dr.  Sontag  was  the  leading 
theologian.  It  can  scarcely  be  a  mere  coincidence  that  in 
1720  there  was  Hving  at  Hamburg  a  theological  student 
who  was  the  parish  clerk  of  St.  Peter's  Church  and  a  native 
of  Liineburg,  also  by  the  name  of  Berkenmeyer,  although 
the  initials  differ  (C.  L.),  and  who  obtained  some  distinc- 


122  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  vii. 

tion  as  a  writer  on  antiquarian  subjects.  On  his  way  he 
was  intercepted  by  a  letter  from  New  York,  stating  that 
his  services  were  not  wanted.  A  former  tailor  had  insinu- 
ated himself  into  the  congregation,  and  won  to  himself  the 
support  of  many  of  the  members,  but  sought  in  vain  from 
various  sources  for  ordination.  A  call  to  Berkenmeyer 
from  Albany  came  at  the  same  time.  Arriving  at  New 
York  with  his  credentials  from  Amsterdam,  he  had  little 
difficulty  in  establishing  himself.  He  brought  with  him  a 
library  for  the  congregation,  bought  with  funds  which  he 
had  collected,  which  would  be  beyond  the  capacity  not 
only  of  the  most  of  the  congregations,  but  even  most  of 
the  pastors  of  the  present  day.  It  consisted  of  twenty 
folios,  fifty  quartos,  twenty-three  octavos,  and  six  duodeci- 
mos, among  them  such  massive  works  as  Calovius'  *'  Biblia 
Illustrata,"  Baldwin's  "  Commentaries  on  St.  Paul's  Epis- 
tles," Dedekenn's  ''  Consilia,"  and  the  same  system  of  the- 
ology that  Bjork  had  with  him,  viz.,  Brochmand.  They 
are  ponderous,  even  to  a  scholar.  The  remnants  of  this 
library  are  said  to  be  in  Wittenberg  College,  Springfield,  O. 
The  member  of  the  congregation  who  went  for  a  pastor 
collected  some  funds;  but  unfortunately  he  was  found  to 
be  short  in  his  accounts.  Berkenmeyer's  activity,  how- 
ever, awakened  sufficient  interest  to  bring  willing  contrib- 
utors from  the  Lutheran  congregation  in  London,  with  the 
result  that  on  the  fourth  Sunday  after  Trinity,  1 729,  the 
new  Trinity  Church  was  dedicated  in  New  York,  and 
Trinity  congregation  in  New  York  was  aiding  the  congre- 
gation at  Albany  in  the  beginning  of  collections  for  the 
same  work.  Berkenmeyer  continued  Falckner's  course  of 
dividing  the  year  between  the  northern  and  southern  part 
of  his  extensive  parish.  At  Albany  the  church  became 
untenable,  and  the  subscriptions  did  not  warrant  the  be- 
ginning  of   the   new   building;    the   English   church   was 


A    GENERAL    ORGANIZATION  PROJECTED.  123 

kindly  put  at  the  disposal  of  the  Lutherans,  and  accepted. 
The  places  besides  New  York  and  Albany  which  Berken- 
meyer  served  were  Loonenburg,  where  there  was  a  parson- 
age for  him  while  in  the  northern  portion  of  his  parish, 
Raritan,  N.  J.,  Hackensack,  Claverack,  Newton,  West 
Camp,  Theerbush,  Camp,  Rhinebeck,  Schenectady,  Cox- 
sackie,  Schoharie.  Besides,  he  often  preached  in  dwelling- 
houses  and  barns.  Those,  too,  were  the  days  in  which  there 
were  no  railroads  or  steamboats. 

Two  years  after  his  arrival  he  was  married  to  the 
daughter  of  one  of  his  predecessors,  Kocherthal.  The 
same  English  clergyman  (Rev.  Dr.  Vesey)  officiated  who 
had  married  Justus  Falckner.  Mr.  Berkenmeyer  offered 
Dr.  Vesey  an  English  translation  of  the  marriage  ceremony 
as  found  in  the  order  of  the  Lutheran  Church  of  Holland ; 
but  he  claimed  the  right  to  insist  on  using  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  and  there  was  no  alternative.  He  re- 
cords the  visits  of  congratulation  by  the  English  clergy, 
and  notices  the  fact  that  other  clergymen  using  the  lan- 
guage of  his  congregation  did  not  show  the  same  courtesy. 
Mrs.  Berkenmeyer  survived  her  husband  many  years,  hav-. 
ing  communed  in  Trinity  Church  as  late  as  1775. 

The  organizing  talent  of  the  North  Germans  was  fully 
developed  in  Berkenmeyer.  He  soon  realized  the  neces- 
sity of  a  division  of  his  large  parish,  especially  as  in  his  long 
absences  the  need  of  the  people  for  more  frequent  ser- 
vices favored  the  entrance  of  impostors,  among  whom  was 
Von  Dieren,  the  tailor  who  has  been  already  mentioned  as 
having  almost  obtained  the  Ne-w  York  congregation  before 
Berkenmeyer's  arrival.  So  persistent  were  Von  Dieren's 
efforts  that  Berkenmeyer  found  it  necessary  to  publish  a 
book  exposing  his  pretensions,  citing  the  document  of  the 
four  Swedish  pastors  concerning  him  and  his  application 
to  them  for  ordination,  and  making  a  number  of  interesting 


124  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  vil. 

observations  on  various  questions.  The  record  of  the 
meeting  of  the  New  York  Church  Council  is  still  preserved, 
in  which  he  presented  a  paper  giving  the  reasons  for  an 
immediate  division  of  the  charge,  and,  to  the  amazement 
and  grief  of  those  present,  handed  in  his  resignation.  Point 
by  point,  the  patient  vestrymen  weighed  the  reasons  and 
assented  to  them,  and  then  gave  a  reluctant  consent  to 
what  they  saw  could  not  be  otherwise  without  damage  to 
the  spiritual  interests  of  the  people.  Michael  Christian 
Knoll,  born  in  Holstein  in  1696,  became  pastor  of  the  south- 
ern portion  at  the  close  of  1732,  after  being  ordained  by 
the  Lutheran  pastors  in  London. 

Berkenmeyer  felt  also  the  need  of  a  .union  of  all  the 
churches  under  a  more  efficient  organization.  In  a  long 
Latin  letter  to  Pastor  Lidman  of  the  Swedish  church  at 
Wicaco  and  to  Bishop  Svedberg  he  recounts  the  difficul- 
ties with  which  the  Lutherans  of  New  York  have  to  con- 
tend, and  asks  them  to  intercede  with  the  King  of  Sweden 
in  their  interests.  His  plan  was  to  unite  and  place  under 
the  care  of  the  King  of  Sweden  the  Dutch  and  the  German 
as  well  as  the  Swedish  churches,  to  obtain  from  him  all 
pastors,  and  to  submit  to  such  mode  of  administration  as 
he  might  designate,  whether  through  a  "  Pennsylvania 
consistorium "  or  episcopal  authority,  and  to  have  him 
arrange  with  the  King  of  England  for  the  prohibition  of 
all  who  assumed  to  be  ministers  but  whose  claims  were  not 
legitimated  by  the  Swedish  authorities.^  The  scheme  was 
of  course  impracticable.  The  Swedes  were  themselves 
wrestling  with  the  difficulty  of  a  supply  of  pastors.  But 
nothing  could  be  expected  from  the  Amsterdam  Consis- 
torium. The  Dutch  Reformed  and  even  the  German  Re- 
formed were  governed  from  Amsterdam  ;  and  the  Episco- 
pal Church,  from  England.  There  was  no  central  Lutheran 
1  Details  in  Grabner,  p.  177  sq. 


THE   SYNOD   OF  1735.  12$ 

Church  authority  in  Germany  which  could  be  made  the 
representative  of  Lutheran  unity.  The  independence  of 
America  and  the  American  churches  was  much  nearer  than 
they  imagined,  if  they  imagined  it  at  all.  Sweden,  there- 
fore, with  its  ecclesiastical  laws  of  1686,  agreeing  closely 
with  those  of  the  Dutch  Church,  and  its  language  closely 
related  to  the  Dutch,  seemed  to  him  to  offer  the  solution. 

When  it  is  said  that  Berkenmeyer  in  1735  presided  over 
the  first  Lutheran  synod  in  America,  this  must  be  under- 
stood with  some  qualifications.  No  synod  existed  such  as 
we  understand  by  the  name.  The  synods  as  we  have  them 
are  confederacies  of  congregations  united  permanently 
under  a  constitution,  prescribing  regular  meetings,  and  a 
system  of  oversight  and  administration  under  officers.  The 
synod  over  which  Berkenmeyer  presided  was  a  conference 
of  the  pastors  and  representatives  of  the  congregations  and 
their  descendants  that  had  been  served  by  Falckner  and 
Kocherthal,  which  was  held  only  once,  and  that  for  the 
purpose  of  adjusting  serious  difficulties  in  the  New  Jersey 
field.  The  one  feature  which  gives  it  any  claim  to  any 
appearance  of  a  synod  of  later  years  was  that  Pastor  Berk- 
enmeyer, as  the  oldest  pastor  present,  opened  the  proceed- 
ings with  the  words : 

In  the  name  of  Jesus,  Amen.  Before  opening  this  synod  it  will  be  neces- 
sary for  us  to  sanction  our  fraternity  by  subscribing  the  Amsterdam  Church 
Order,  as  it  has  hitherto  been  in  use  in  our  congregations  pledged  to  the  Unal- 
tered Augsburg  Confession,  and  has  recently  been  more  strictly  applied. 

But  when  we  more  carefully  examine  the  circumstances, 
we  find  that  this  was  intended  as  the  condition  upon  which 
the  pastors  and  congregations  who  adhered  to  the  Amster- 
dam Order  were  willing  to  act  as  arbitrators  between  Pas- 
tor Wolf  and  his  people.  If  there  had  been  another  meet- 
ing of  this  kind  in  Berkenmeyer's  time,  it  would  have  been 
the  second  synod  in  America.      According  to  this  reckon- 


126  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  vii. 

ing,  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  will  soon  hold  its  one 
hundred  and  fiftieth  synod. 

Professor  Grabner  reproduces  the  incidents  of  the  meet- 
ing in  a  way  almost  as  graphic  as  that  with  which  Dean 
Stanley  portrays  the  assembling  of  the  Council  of  Nice. 
We  see  Dominie  Berkenmeyer  setting  out,  August  7, 
1735,  from  Loonenburg,  furnished  with  credentials  from 
his  congregations  **  to  deliberate  and  vote,  to  do  and  act, 
as  according  to  God's  Word,  our  symbolical  books,  and  the 
Amsterdam  Church  Order,  may  seem  good  to  his  Rever- 
ence." The  wind  is  contrary,  and  it  takes  the  boat  four 
days  to  descend  the  Hudson.  The  synod  was  to  have 
met  in  New  York.  Six  delegates  have  come  to  represent 
their  side  against  their  pastor;  but  the  pastor  is  not  to  be 
found.  Berkenmeyer  decides  that  the  synod  shall  be  held 
in  Pastor  Wolf's  own  parish,  so  as  to  insure  his  presence. 
At  eleven  o'clock,  August  20,  1735,  almost  two  weeks 
after  Berkenmeyer  started,  this  "  first  Lutheran  synod " 
convenes.      Its  roll  and  organization  was : 

Pastors :  Berkenmeyer,  Knoll,  Wolf. 

Lay  delegates :  New  York :  Charles  Beekman,  Jacob 
Bos  ;  Hackensack  :  Jacob  Van  Norden,  Abraham  Boskerk ; 
Uylekil :  Peter  Frederick ;  Rockaway :  Balthasar  Pichel, 
Lorenz  Rulofsen ;  Raritan :  Daniel  Schumacker,  Henry 
Schmid. 

Total :  ministers,  three ;  lay  delegates,  nine.  President 
and  secretary  :    Berkenmeyer.  , 

Peace  was  temporarily  restored  to  the  distracted  congre- 
gation, upon  the  promise  of  the  pastor  to  be  **  satisfied  with 
New  Jersey  instead  of  New  York  money,"  to  charge 
twelve  shillings  for  a  funeral  sermon  for  an  adult,  and  six 
shillings  for  such  sermon  for  a  child,  to  conform  to  the 
"  Church  Order "  in  his  ministerial  acts,  and  to  ''  preach 
out  of  his  head  "  instead  of  from  manuscript,  as  soon  as 


BETWEEN   TWO  FIRES.  I  27 

the  parsonage  would  be  ready  for  his  use.  But  it  was 
only  a  temporary  peace.  Muhlenberg  was  afterward  to 
be  tormented  by  appeals  from  both  sides,  until  at  last,  with 
much  reluctance,  he  joined  with  Revs.  Tobias  Wagner  and 
Knoll  in  an  arbitration  in  1745.  A  full  report,  which  is 
by  no  means  edifying  reading,  is  found  in  the  new  edition 
of  the  Halle  ''Reports,"  pp.  112-141.  It  stands  as  a 
warning  that  nothing  is  gained  by  withholding  the  exercise 
of  strict  discipline  against  clerical  offenders,  and  that,  in 
the  interests  of  the  peace  of  the  church  and  the  salvation 
of  souls,  Christian  love  sometimes  demands  measures  just 
as  prompt  as  they  are  severe  and  decisive. 

The  language  question  came  into  prominence  during  the 
close  of  Berkenmeyer's  career.  It  seems  that  from  the 
very  beginning  of  Berkenmeyer's  ministry  in  1725  the 
English  was  used  entirely  in  the  church  at  Albany,^  having 
displaced  the  Dutch.  In  later  years  the  English  gave  way 
to  the  German,  to  be  reintroduced  in  1808,  and  to  gain 
again,  in  18 12,  the  exclusive  position  it  had  held  during 
Berkenmeyer's  entire  ministry.  The  explanation  is  mani- 
fest ;  first  came  the  Dutch,  then  their  anglicized  descend- 
ants, who  at  last  ceased  entirely  to  attend  Berkenmeyer's 
preaching ;  then  the  Germans,  followed  by  the  anglicized 
German- Americans.  But  in  New  York,  before  the  Dutch 
were  anglicized,  German  immigration  had  set  in  so  vigor- 
ously that  the  Germans  in  the  congregation  began  to  out- 
number the  Dutch,  occasioning  a  protracted  struggle  con- 
cerning the  language  to  be  used  in  the  services.  Between 
the  Dutch  and  the  Germans,  Pastor  Knoll  was  in  perpetual 
misery.  In  1742  it  was  decided  by  the  church  councils 
that  before  every  communion  there  should  be  a  prepara- 
tory service  In  German.  Pastor  Knoll  informed  the  Ger- 
mans that  it  was  unreasonable  to  expect  more.      It  would 

1  Griibner,  p.  22. 


128  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  vii. 

be  very  easy,  he  said,  for  the  Germans  to  learn  Dutch,  and 
if  they  would  be  more  regular  in  their  attendance  the 
difficulties  with  the  Dutch  language  would  soon  vanish, 
and  they  would  be  able  to  participate  in  the  services  to 
edification.  But  the  Germans  thought  differently.  The 
next  year  they  renewed  their  petition,  and  demanded  that 
half  the  services  should  be  in  their  language.  The  Dutch 
thought  that  they  were  generous  in  conceding  one  sixth. 
But  when  the  time  for  the  German  service  came,  Pastor 
Knoll  had  to  preach  German  to  a  Dutch  audience,  since 
the  Germans  almost  to  a  man  absented  themselves.  In 
the  midst  of  the  confusion,  during  the  period  that  Pastor 
Knoll  devoted  to  his  country  congregations,  a  German  im- 
postor, by  the  name  of  Hofguth,  a  man  of  great  preten- 
sions, insinuated  himself,  and  actually  managed  to  hold  a 
German  service  in  the  church,  without  permission  of  the 
pastor  or  church  council ;  and  when  prohibited,  he  held 
services  and  administered  the  sacraments  in  private  houses, 
until  sufficient  evidence  came  from  Germany  as  to  his  false 
character  to  move  the  governor  of  the  colony  to  officially 
notify  him  to  desist.  He  retired  to  the  country,  where  he 
still  gave  Pastor  Knoll  considerable  trouble. 

The  Germans  returned  once  more  to  the  contest. 
Again,  in  1749,  they  demanded  half  the  services.  They 
insisted  that  a  great  wrong  was  being  done  them  in  deny- 
ing them  the  Word  of  God  in  their  own  language.  Dutch 
they  did  not  understand.  This  was  especially  true  of  their 
women  and  children.  At  home  they  spoke  German ;  when 
they  went  into  the  street  they  heard  only  English.  If  they 
could  not  be  provided  with  sufficient  German  services  in  the 
Lutheran  Church,  they  would  join  the  Church  of  England, 
as  the  English  was  better  understood  among  the  Germans  of 
New  York  than  was  the  Dutch.  They  made  an  impression 
upon  the  pastor ;  but  in  all  the  meetings  of  the  council  the 


DUTCH   VERSUS   GERMAN.  1 29 

votes  were  evenly  divided,  the  representatives  of  the  old 
Dutch  Lutheran  families,  the  Beekmans  and  Van  Buskirks, 
being  determined  in  their  opposition  to  the  introduction  of 
more  German.  It  seems  strange  that  the  justice  of  the 
request  of  the  Germans  was  not  universally  acknowledged  ; 
for  the  communion  records  show  that,  of  the  eighty  com- 
municants at  Whitsunday,  1739,  only  seven  were  present 
at  the  Dutch  preparatory  service,  and  of  eighty-one  in 
1 749  only  nine  were  Dutch,  and  the  rest  Germans.  But 
the  argument  by  which  the  Germans  were  opposed  was 
that  it  was  dangerous  to  make  any  concessions,  and  if  half 
of  the  services  were  granted  them  they  would  very  soon 
have  all,  and  the  Dutch  would  disappear;  who  could 
prevent  it?  The  result  was,  as  might  have  been  antici- 
pated, a  split  in  the  congregation.  A  Rev.  J.  F.  Ries, 
who  had  studied  both  theology  and  medicine  in  Germany, 
was  called  as  pastor  of  a  new  German  congregation.  But 
the  majority  of  the  Germans  did  not  follow  him.  In  1757 
there  were  sixty-three  German  and  eighteen  Dutch  com- 
municants in  the  old  church.  But  long  before  this  Knoll 
had  resigned,  worn  out  with  the  conflict,  and  a  better  state 
of  things  had  been  introduced  by  the  brief  pastorate  of 
Muhlenberg. 

Berkenmeyer  entered  into  his  rest  August  25,  1751,  at 
the  age  of  sixty-five,  active  in  his  pastoral  duties  until  the 
end.  He  brought  energy,  devotion,  and  learning  to  his 
work;  but  the  advanced  age  at  which  he  entered  the 
ministry  and  came  to  this  country  partially  explains  his 
inferiority  to  Muhlenberg  in  his  ability  to  adapt  himself 
to  circumstances  and  to  overcome  serious  difficulties.  His 
tastes  were  scholastic,  and  he  prepared  with  ease  erudite 
theological  opinions,  with  copious  citations  from  the  best 
of  Lutheran  authorities.  He  preached  in  three  languages, 
was  greatly  beloved  by  his  people,  and,  although  he  kept 


130  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  vii. 

negro  slaves,  as.  did  his  parishioners  and  neighbors,  he 
cared  for  their  spiritual  interests.  He  filled  an  important 
place  in  the  development  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in 
America,  and  filled  it  well.  Without  directly  attacking 
Muhlenberg,  he  kept  aloof  from  him,  as  from  all  others 
trained  at  Halle,  because  of  his  great  aversion  to  Pietism, 
which  he  had  learned  to  know  by  some  of  its  extrava- 
gances in  Germany.  The  year  before  his  death  Muhlen- 
berg called  upon  him  in  New  York,  and  was  most  court- 
eously received.  We  know  nothing  of  their  conversation 
except  that  Berkenmeyer  excused  himself  from  attending 
upon  services  at  which  Muhlenberg  was  to  preach.  They 
never  met  again  on  earth. 

With  ministers  and  members  of  other  churches  he  was 
friendly.  When  Pastor  Frelinghuysen,  of  the  Reformed 
Dutch  Church  in  Albany,  was  ill  with  the  smallpox,  Berk- 
enmeyer braved  the  danger  of  the  contagion  to  visit 
him.  But  he  never  hesitated  to  testify  against  what  he  be- 
lieved to  be  serious  errors  in  the  teaching  of  those  around 
him,  even  at  the  risk,  sometimes,  of  seeming  to  be  dis- 
courteous. 

As  early  as  i  742  a  portion  of  Berkenmeyer's  northern 
district  had  been  given  by  him  to  Rev.  Peter  N.  Sommer, 
who  lived  at  Schoharie,  serving  also  Stone  Arabia,  Palatine 
Bridoe,  Cobleskill,  etc.,  and  who  married  a  daup;hter  of  Berk- 
enmeyer.  He  was  from  Hamburg,  and  a  man  of  like  spirit 
with  his  father-in-law.  He  served  the  Schoharie  charge 
until  disabled  by  the  infirmities  of  age.  For  twenty  years 
he  was  blind,  but  before  the  close  of  life  awoke  one  morn- 
ing to  find  his  sight  restored.  One  who  treats  of  the  his- 
tory of  those  days  from  a  purely  secular  standpoint  has  said 
of  Sommer;! 

1  Kapp,  p.  327  sq. 


SOiMMER.  I  3  I 

The  life  of  this  unpretentious  and  able  man  was  a  constant  struggle  with 
the  elements,  a  joyful  surrender  to  the  spiritual  and  moral  interests  of  his 
congregations,  a  discreet  heroism  that  did  not  force  itself  into  publicity,  nev- 
ertheless intrepidly  performed  its  full  duty  within  a  narrow  circle.  What 
attracts  us  to  a  hero  is  the  naivete  of  his  acts,  and  the  entire  confidence  with 
which  they  are  performed ;  unconsciously  to  himself,  he  does  the  right  thing 
at  the  right  moment.  Sommer  was  a  man  of  such  superior,  decided,  and  firm 
character.  He  rode  among  the  hostile  Indians  without  ever  thinking  of  his 
danger,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  always  cautious  and  self-possessed.  Once 
on  a  journey  along  the  Mohawk  he  was  thrown  by  his  shying  horse;  he 
calmly  determined  to  continue  his  way  on  foot,  but  before  going  farther  fas- 
tened to  -a  tree  a  sheet  of  paper  with  an  account  of  his  accident,  in  order  to 
pacify  the  members  of  his  congregation  when  the  riderless  horse  would  return, 
and  they  would  seek  him.  It  turned  out  according  to  his  anticipations. 
Scarcely  had  the  horse  returned  to  Schoharie,  before  many  of  its  inhabitants 
set  forth  to  search  for  their  pastor,  whom  they  supposed  to  be  murdered  by 
the  Indians.  In  the  midst  of  the  forest  they  found  where  he  ha^d  been  thrown, 
and  also  the  statement  that  he  had  survived. 

"  On  September  25,  1746,"  so  reads  the  brief  entry  in  his  church  records, 
"  a  sermon  was  preached  and  the  Lord's  Supper  administered  to  the  volunteers 
who  were  going  on  the  expedition  against  Canada."  Into  these  simple  words 
an  entire  chapter  of  history  is  condensed.  When  Quebec  was  taken,  and 
with  the  fall  of  its  fortress  the  French  dominion  over  the  continent  was 
broken,  and  England's  supremacy  established,  Sommer  celebrated  with  his 
congregation,  on  November  22,  1759,  a  public  Thanksgiving  festival,  and, 
in  like  manner,  the  return  of  peace  was  greeted  by  him,  August  i,  1763. 
Many  a  German  home  had  been  burned  in  the  wild  border  warfare,  many  a 
flourishing  German  neighborhood  had  been  laid  in  ashes,  many  a  brave  Ger- 
man had  fallen  upon  the  field  of  battle,  or  been  stricken  down  and  scalped  in 
ambush ;  and  the  survivors  had  the  right  to  rejoice  over  the  annihilation  of 
the  power  of  their  strong  and  formidable  enemy,  and  to  give  thanks  for  their 
deliverance. 

He  died  in  1795,  in  his  eighty-seventh  year.  One  min- 
isterial family,  consisting  of  Kocherthal,  Berkenmeyer,  and 
Sommer,  served  the  Lutheran  congregations  of  central  New 
York  for  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

In  1734  three  congregations  (Rhinebeck,  West  Camp, 
and  Theerbusch)  on  the  east  side  of  the  Hudson  had  called 
a  man  as  pastor  whom  Berkenmeyer  never  would  acknowl- 
edge as  such.  His  language  was  certainly  plain :  ''  I  no 
more  recognize  you  as  a  Lutheran  minister  than  I  do  the 


132  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  vii. 

devil  as  an  apostle."  The  result  showed  that  his  judg- 
ment was  correct.  Where  the  field  was  so  vast  and  the 
organization  so  defective,  it  was  not  very  difficult  for  con- 
gregations to  have  such  an  experience.  From  1737  Berk- 
enmeyer  again  became  their  pastor.  Not  many  years  after, 
and  during  the  earlier  years  of  Muhlenberg's  ministry,  the 
well-known  John  Christopher  Hartwig  labored  in  this  field. 

Knoll,  after  leaving  New  York,  was  for  a  long  time  pas- 
tor of  a  congregation  in  Dutchess  County  and  the  congre- 
gation at  Newburg.  Berkenmeyer's  charge,  which  had  no 
regular  pastor  for  twenty-two  years  after  his  death,  was 
also  served  by  him  temporarily. 

Before  we  leave  the  Dutch  Lutheran  congregations  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  reference  may  be  made  also  to  a 
colony  on  James  Island,  S.  C,  in  1674,  which  included 
"  Dutch  Lutherans,"  and  suffered  proscription  for  not  sub- 
mitting to  the  Church  of  England.  Dr.  Bernheim  is  of  the 
opinion  that  they  came  thither  from  New  York ;  but  their 
history  is  in  entire  obscurity.  1 

1  Bernheim,  p.  56. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE    HALLE    LUTHERANS,    THE    CHURCHES    IN    LONDON, 
AND    THE    ENGLISH    SOCIETIES. 

The  German  Lutheran  pastors  who  had  from  time  to 
time  been  sent  to  serve  the  Dutch  churches  in  America 
had  come  almost  exclusively  from  Hamburg  or  its  vicinity. 
The  pastors  who  controlled  the  development  of  the  Luther- 
an Church  in  Pennsylvania  and  the  South  proceeded  from 
Halle.  One  representative  of  this  school  we  have  already 
learned  to  know  in  Justus  Falckner.  Before  proceeding 
further  we  must  interrupt  the  narrative,  to  go  to  the  fount- 
ain-head of  the  movement  which  was  powerfully  felt  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  America. 

Philip  Jacob  Spener  (1635-1705),  the  founder  of  the 
school  represented  by  Halle,  had  no  thought  of  departing 
in  any  way  from  the  most  clear  and  explicit  definitions  of 
the  Lutheran  confessions.  In  the  violent  Pietistic  contro- 
versy his  adversaries  constantly  endeavored  to  prove  him 
unfaithful  to  the  confessions ;  but  he  always  repelled  these 
attacks  with  the  most  earnest  protestations  of  their  incor- 
rectness. It  was  his  aim,  not  to  overthrow  the  doctrines 
therein  maintained,  but  to  insist  upon  their  application  in 
the  practical  life  of  the  individual  Christian  and  the  church. 
Again  and  again  he  insisted,  *'  That  church  always  remains 
the  true  church  which  has  and  retains  the  pure  Word  of 
God,  even  though  the  greater  part  of  the  congregation  have 
deteriorated."     He  rejected,  as  an  error  explicitly  repudi- 

133 


134  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

ated  by  the  Lutheran  symbols,  the  conception  that  there 
are  no  Christians  except  in  the  Lutheran  Church ;  but  at 
the  same  time  affirmed  that,  by  reason  of  the  purity  of  its 
confession,  the  Lutheran  has  a  claim  to  the  name  "  church  " 
above  that  of  other  communions.  He  held  that  the  Lu- 
theran Church  of  his  day  had  greatly  degenerated  ;  but 
urged  that  the  remedy  was  to  be  found  not  in  abandoning 
it,  or  in  seeking  to  amend  its  definitions  and  church  regu- 
lations, but  in  putting  new  life  into  the  old  forms.    He  says  : 

When  I  consider  the  state  of  things,  with  all  their  circumstances,  I  will 
not  deny  that  I  cannot  entertain  any  very  great  hopes,  that,  with  all  our 
diligence,  we  will  accomplish  much  to  bring  our  church  into  the  condition  in 
which  it  should  be;  but  whatever  we  do,  nothing  but  bungling  will  remain, 
and  the  Lord  alone  will  have  the  glory  of  restoring  his  church.  And  yet  it 
will  be  our  part  even  to  bungle,  as  well  as  we  can  and  as  long  as  we  can ; 
but  not  to  pull  up  that  wherein  there  is  still  something  good.  We  must  bear 
patiently  what  we  cannot  change,  and  cry  to  God  day  after  day  that  he  would 
make  the  salvation  of  Israel  come  out  of  Zion  (Psalm  xiv.  7),  and  receive 
back  again  his  banished  ones.  Especially  must  we  be  on  our  guard,  lest  we 
take  offense  at  the  church,  or  its  sad  state,  concerning  which  Luther  raised 
his  warning;  but  be  assured,  that,  beneath  the  soiled  and  tattered  garment 
which  surrounds  it,  it  is  still  inwardly  good,  as  only  God  and  the  eye  of  faith 
can  see.  As  soon  as  one  begins  to  separate  from  the  church  because  of 
offenses,  this  separation  is  the  very  gravest  offense,  more  grievous  than  all 
the  evils  which  he  attempts  to  flee.i 

His  treatment  of  his  relation  to  the  symbolical  books  of 
the  Lutheran  Church  is  clear,  full,  and  discriminating,  as 
he  presents  it  in  a  special  treatise.^  They  are,  he  main- 
tains, not  the  rule  of  our  faith,  but  of  our  doctrine.  They 
have  no  infallibility  or  divine  perfection.  The  form  in  which 
they  have  made  some  statements  is  susceptible  of  improve- 
ment and  criticism,  when  an  application  of  their  definitions 
is  made  to  controversies  which  their  writers  did  not  have  in 
view  ;  but,  nevertheless,  the  doctrines  themselves,  regarded 
in  their  contemporary  relations,  he  accepted  throughout. 

1  Sermon  at  Dresden,  Sexagesima  Sunday,  1690. 

2  "Theologische  Bedenken,"^vol.  i.,  pp.  341-394- 


SP£J\r£J^.  135 

But  he  would  not  bind  his  faith  to  the  symboHcal  books. 
They  were  not  intended  to  present  exhaustive  systems  of 
doctrine,  but  only  to  decide,  at  particular  times,  questions 
which  had  then  been  called  into  controversy.  They  are 
not  to  be  used  so  as  to  arrest  the  study  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  and  silence  the  testimony  of  Christians  on 
subjects  on  which  these  books  do  not  treat.  **  The  assur- 
ance of  their  truth  we  accept  not  from  our  regard  for  their 
composers,  or  from  the  acceptance  even  of  our  church,  but 
because  we  have  found  them  to  be  in  harmony  with  the 
divine  Word."  To  ascribe  to  them  greater  authority  was 
to  contradict  these  books  themselves.  Spener  found  in 
the  English  theology  which  he  read,  a  confounding  of  law 
and  gospel  that  he  regarded  dangerous.^ 

As  Luther  in  the  confessional,  so  Spener  in  the  fulfill- 
ment of  his  office  as  an  official  church  visitor  made  the 
beginning  of  his  protest  against  manifest  abuses.  It  was 
a  dreadful  lack  of  true  sense  of  pastoral  responsibility,  in 
his  opinion,  that  he  found  pastors  who  were  ignorant  even 
of  the  names  of  members  of  their  congregations ;  and  yet, 
according  to  the  practice  hitherto  prevalent  in  the  Lutheran 
Church,  the  pastor  was  presumed  to  be  the  spiritual  con- 
fidant of  all  communicants.  He  drew  an  unfavorable  con- 
trast with  the  house-to-house  pastoral  visitation  of  the 
Reformed.  He  was  exercised  sorely  concerning  the  care- 
lessness current  in  the  religious  instruction  of  children,  the 
decline  of  catechization  and  of  sermons  to  children.  His 
activity  was  directed  to  the  endeavor  to  awaken  pastors  to 
the  serious  consideration  of  their  own  personal  relations  to 
Christ,  and  the  momentous  realities  of  their  office.  When 
the  controversy  was  fairly  started,  extravagant  statements 
were  readily  made  on  both  sides.  For  we  must  not  re- 
gard all  the  opponents,  even  of  the  early  days  of  Pietism, 

1  //>n/.,  p.  335. 


136  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

as  justly  chargeable  with  the  neglect  of  which  Spener 
complained.  Such  questions  were  discussed  as  whether 
any  blessing  can  be  derived  from  the  ministry  of  the  un- 
regenerate ;  whether  a  minister  regenerated  in  baptism 
could  properly  be  called  unregenerate ;  whether  in  con- 
version a  change  of  knowledge  precedes  that  of  will ; 
whether  the  insisting  upon  "  a  living  faith  "  as  the  ground 
of  justification  does  not  bring  some  merit  of  faith  into 
justification ;  etc. 

Next  to  Spener,  the  greatest  representative  of  Pietism 
was  Ausfust  Hermann  Francke,  who  was  born  at  Liibeck, 
March  22,  1663.  The  subject  of  deep  religious  impres- 
sions from  his  childhood,  in  his  eleventh  year  he  had 
vowed  in  his  private  prayers  that  he  would  devote  his 
whole  life  to  God's  glory.  His  youth  indicated  no  depart- 
ure from  that  holy  purpose.  At  Erfurt,  at  Kiel,  at  Ham- 
burg, at  Leipzig,  he  most  dihgently  pursued  the  studies 
which  would  fit  him  for  becoming  a  professor  of  theology. 
At  Leipzig,  with  other  students,  he  had  formed  a  Collegitun 
Philobibliciini  to  prosecute  the  neglected  study  of  the  ex- 
egesis of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  Spener,  who 
had  just  come  to  Dresden,  had  afforded  them  much  help. 
But  when  in  1687  he  went  to  Liineburg,  and  was  prepar- 
ing to  preach  on  John  xx.  31,  it  seemed  to  him  that  he 
was  destitute  of  the  faith  he  was  about  to  urge  upon 
others.  His  whole  past  life  was  before  him,  he  says,  as 
from  a  high  tower  we  may  look  over  the  whole  city.  For 
days  he  was  in  distress.  But  at  last  he  rose  from  prayer, 
assured  of  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ.  "  It  seemed  as 
though  I  had  been  all  my  past  life  in  a  dream,  and  only 
now  had  wakened."  Liineburg  he  regarded  his  spiritual, 
as  Liibeck  was  his  bodily,  birthplace.  His  intimacy  with 
Spener  grew,  at  whose  home  in  Dresden  he  spent  some 
time  as  an  inmate  of  his  house,  and  whom  he  regarded  as 


FRANCKE.  1 3  7 

his  spiritual  father.  As  a  lecturer  on  biblical  themes  at 
Leipzig  and  preacher  at  Erfurt  he  soon  engaged  attention 
and  awoke  opposition. 

But  his  proper  work  began  when,  in  1692,  he  went  to 
Halle  as  professor  of  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  languages, 
and  pastor.  His  work  there  in  these  two  spheres  would 
seem  to  have  been  sufficient  to  have  consumed  all  his 
energies.  Besides  sermons  thrice  a  week,  there  were  daily 
services,  catechetical  instruction,  meetings  for  edification, 
and  private  conferences  almost  daily.  "  His  sermons,"  says 
Guericke,  were  **  the  outpouring  of  a  heart  thoroughly 
pervaded  by  the  great,  unchangeable,  practical,  funda- 
mental truths  of  Christianity.  It  was  always  the  sins  of 
men,  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ,  and  the  new  holy  life 
awakened  by  faith  in  the  Redeemer  to  which  all  his  ser- 
mons recurred,  although  in  manifold  form  and  application," 
so  plain  and  simple,  ''  that  servants  and  even  little  children 
understood  them." 

As  a  professor  Francke  threw  all  his  force  upon  the 
thorough  grounding  of  his  students  in  God's  Word,  break- 
ing through  conventional  rules  and  remodeling  the  course 
according  to  this  end.  In  addition  to  his  public  lectures 
he  was  delighted  to  be  able  to  institute  private  lectures 
for  the  cursory  and  less  formal  treatment  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  as  well  as  Collegia  Biblica,  in  which 
students  read  and  discussed  portions  of  Holy  Scripture. 
The  university  took  its  entire  direction  from  him,  his  col- 
leagues cooperating  with  most  thorough  harmony  in  sub- 
ordinating the  dogmatical  to  the  practical  Christian  inter- 
ests there  urged. 

But  the  institutions  of  benevolence  which  Francke  es- 
tablished were  more  influential  than  even  the  university. 
They  were  a  gradual  growth.  Poor  children  came  to  his 
door  for  alms.      He  invited  them  in,  and  with  bodily  gave 


138  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

them  also  spiritual  food,  examining  them  and  teaching 
them  the  catechism.  He  placed  a  contribution-box  in  his 
sitting-room  for  funds  for  the  schooling  of  the  children, 
with  I  John  iii.  17  and  2  Cor.  ix.  7  prominently  inscribed 
upon  it.  Soon  a  student  was  engaged  for  two  hours  a 
day  as  tutor,  and  Francke  surrendered  a  part  of  his  study 
for  the  schoolroom.  Parents  who  were  able  to  pay  asked 
to  send  their  children;  a  room,  and  then  another  in  a 
neighboring  house,  was  taken.  Then  came  others,  who 
wanted  their  children's  education  to  be  more  constantly 
and  immediately  under  his  supervision ;  and  the  founding 
of  what  was  known  as  the  Pedagogium  was  the  result. 
More  gifts  came,  and  with  them  soon  the  Orphan  House. 
Then  money  was  contributed  to  give  twenty-four  students 
free  boarding;  and  these  students  were  utilized  as  teachers 
in  the  various  institutions.  A  Latin  school  was  erected  in 
1697.  This  all  was  the  work  of  three  years.  The  institu- 
tions were  all  popularly  known  under  one  name  as  *'  The 
Orphan  House."  In  the  year  of  Francke's  death  (1727), 
twenty-two  hundred  children,  of  whom  one  hundred  and 
thirty-four  were  orphans,  were  in  attendance,  with  eight 
inspectors,  and  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  male  and 
eight  female  teachers.  The  buildings  rendered  necessary 
for  their  accommodation  made  an  imposing  appearance. 
**The  chief  end  in  all  these  schools,"  said  Francke,  **  is 
that,  above  all  things,  children  may  be  brought  to  a  living 
knowledge  of  God  and  Christ.  All  learning  and  all  knowl- 
edge is  folly  if  it  do  not  have  pure  love  to  God  and  men 
as  its  foundation." 

From  this  center  streams  of  Christian  activity  proceeded 
in  all  directions.  The  students,  teachers,  and  inspectors 
from  these  schools,  as  well  as  those  who  attended  the  uni- 
versity, proceeded  from  Halle  in  all  directions,  to  diffuse 
the  spirit  they  had  acquired  there.      In   1 705  Ziegenbalg 


THE  HALLE  ALUMNI,  1 39 

and  Plutschau  went  forth  as  the  pioneer  missionaries  to 
India,  to  be  followed  by  others  from  Halle,  greatest  of 
whom  were  Schultze  and  Christian  Frederick  Schwartz 
(1726-98).  Callenberg  became  active  in  efforts  to  con- 
vert Jews  and  Mohammedans.  Zinzendorf  inspired  the 
Moravians  with  the  zeal  which  was  enkindled  at  Halle,  in 
which  he  was  ably  supported  by  Bishop  Spangenberg,  also 
from  Halle.  Encouraged  by  Francke,  his  friend  Baron 
von  Canstein  founded  his  Bible  Institution  at  Halle,  in 
1 7 10,  the  forerunner  by  nearly  a  century  of  the  Bible 
societies  of  later  times.  ^  Halle  sent  its  alumni  to  England, 
who,  as  pastors  in  the  Royal  Chapel  and  other  Lutheran 
churches,  exerted  a  wide  influence  upon  the  House  of 
Hanover,  that  had  succeeded  to  the  English  throne,  and 
were  prominent  agents  in  many  important  Christian  enter- 
prises. From  Halle,  Boltzius  and  Gronau  went  to  Georgia, 
and  Muhlenberg,  with  a  large  number  who  followed  him,  to 
Pennsylvania.  From  the  printing  establishment  in  the  Halle 
institutions  were  issued  those  full  reports  of  the  missions 
both  in  India  and  in  America,  so  highly  prized,  even  to-day, 
for  their  full  accounts  of  the  humble  efforts  made  by  heroic 
men  to  carry  the  knowledge  of  God  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
Nor  was  this  accompHshed  by  Francke,  any  more  than 
by  Spener,  by  the  surrender  of  any  principle  which  the 
Lutheran  Church  had  embodied  in  its  confessions.  "  The 
symbolical  books,"  it  is  said  in  a  statement  by  the  Halle 
faculty,  ''are  held  in  all  honor;  and  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  a  university  where  they  are  more  diligently  read, 
referred  to,  quoted,  and  recommended  to  the  students 
than  at  Halle."  -  **  Spener  and  other  true  teachers  showed 
in  the  most  thorough  and  clearest  way  that  they  held  with 
absolute  firmness  to  them."^ 

1  The  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  was  founded  in  1804. 

2  Lange,  p.  447.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  65. 


140  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

Who  would  not  prefer  to  hear  nothing  of  any  decline 
from  this  prosperity?  But  as  historical  truth  demands  it, 
we  let  the  story  be  told  by  a  later  Halle  professor,  the 
eminent  Professor  Tholuck,  whom  no  one  can  charge  with 
prejudice  against  the  school  of  Spener  and  Francke. 

''  Pietism  in  Halle,"  says  Professor  Tholuck,  "  reached  the 
summit  of  its  power  under  Frederick  William  I.  [i  713-40], 
the  soldier  king  with  the  Christian  soldier's  heart,  the  par- 
ticular patron  of  the  Halle  theological  faculty.  Under  him 
was  issued  in  1729  the  edict  which  was  promulgated  anew 
in  1736,  according  to  which  no  Lutheran  theologian  should 
hold  a  position  in  the  Prussian  state  who  had  not  studied 
at  least  two  years  in  Halle,  and  received  a  testimonial  from 
the  Halle  faculty  of  being  in  a  state  of  grace.  But  its  in- 
ner power  did  not  correspond  with  its  external  prosperity. 
The  one-sided  peculiarities  of  the  elder  Francke  were  fully 
overcome  by  his  mental  originality  and  activity,  and  were 
compensated  to  a  certain  extent  by  associates  like  Breit- 
haupt  and  Anton.  In  the  younger  Francke  the  type  was 
still  the  same,  but  without  the  originality  of  spirit,  while 
the  place  of  Breithaupt  and  Anton  could  not  be  filled  by 
a  Joachim  Lange  and  John  George  Knapp,  and  still  less  by 
the  feeble  souls  alongside  of  them.  How  little  the  faculty 
could  offer  students  desirous  of  learning,  Semler's  descrip- 
tion in  his  autobiography  shows;  that  the  former  har- 
mony in  the  faculty  was  no  longer  present,  the  communi- 
cations in  Eckstein's  '  Chronicle  of  Halle,'  fifth  part,  prove. 
Where  devotional  exercises  were  reduced  to  method  and 
made  a  work  of  law,  the  death  instead  of  the  life  of  piety 
was  occasioned ;  in  the  second  generation  at  Halle  ascetic 
practices  assumed  a  methodistic-legalistic  character.  As 
a  fresh  alongside  of  a  dried-up  stream,  so  Moravianism 
flourished  alongside  of  Pietism,  and  withdrew  a  good  part 
of  its  resources.      In  indignation  at  the  legality,  the  excess- 


FRE  YLINGHA  USEN.  1 4 1 

ive  urging  to  prayer,  the  demand  of  a  penitential  struggle, 
the  condemning  of  matters  of  indiflference,  Zinzendorf  put 
into  verse  the  statement :  *  The  only  people  upon  earth 
who  are  oflfensive  to  me  and  irritate  me  are  the  miserable 
Christians  who  allow  no  men  but  themselves  to  have  the 
title  of  Pietists.'  Gradually  the  nursery  of  piety  was 
transformed  into  a  nursery  of  rationalism.  '  God's  gifts 
descend  not  by  inheritance ;  '  this  is  proved  also  in  the 
history  of  the  Halle  institutions.  Every  director  had  the 
right  to  chose  his  own  successor;  and  yet  with  Ludwig 
Schultze  and  Niemeyer  the  direction  passed  gradually 
into  the  hands  of  rationalism.  Under  Baumgarten  the  in- 
terests of  piety  yielded  to  those  of  learning ;  and  through 
Semler,  Gruner,  Nosselt,  and  Niemeyer,  rationalism  became 
the  prevalent  theology.  Only  in  George  Christian  Knapp 
a  branch  of  the  old  Halle  school  remained,  but  reserved 
and  timid,  and  without  any  extensive  influence.  At  my 
entrance  in  Halle  in  1826  I  found  still  two  citizens  who 
traced  their  faith  to  this  one  deceased  advocate  of  the  old 
school  among  the  clergy." 

This  deterioration,  however,  was  gradual.  It  can  be 
traced  accurately  in  its  beginnings  by  the  critical  theolo- 
gian, like  Professor  Tholuck,  long  before  it  became  mani- 
fest in  the  practical  life.  But  a  knowledge  of  what  was 
gradually  undermining  the  influence  of  those  institutions 
becomes  of  importance  in  helping  us  to  appreciate  some 
of  the  reasons  for  the  opposition  shown  pastors  from  Halle, 
and  to  understand  the  antagonism  between  Zinzendorf 
and  Muhlenberg.  After  the  death  of  August  Hermann 
Francke,  in  1727,  the  directorship  passed  first  to  his  son, 
Gotthelf  August,  who  was  succeeded  in  1769  by  John 
George  Knapp,  and  in  1771  by  Gottlieb  Anastasius  Frey- 
linghausen.  John  Anastasius  Freylinghausen,  who  suc- 
ceded   the   elder   Francke    as   pastor   and  was   associated 


142  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

with  the  younger  Francke  as  co-director  from  1727  to 
his  death  in  1739,  was  the  most  eminent  and  able  of  the 
later  Halle  representatives,  and  thoroughly  lived  and  moved 
in  the  spirit  which  animated  the  institutions  from  their  be- 
ginning. He  participated  in  their  foundation,  by  becom- 
ing the  first  inspector  of  the  Pedagogium  in  1694. 

An  important  factor  in  diffusing  the  missionary  zeal  of 
Halle  in  general,  as  well  as  in  the  transplanting  of  Ger- 
man Lutheranism  to  America,  is  found  in  the  Lutheran 
churches  in  London.  During  the  eighteenth  century  there 
were  six  German  Lutheran  churches  there ;  but  their 
influence  is  not  to  be  estimated  by  their  number.  The 
kings  of  England  were,  at  the  same  time,  electors  of  Lu- 
theran Hanover,  providing  for  the  spiritual  care  of  their 
subjects,  in  England  through  the  archbishops  and  bishops 
of  the  realm,  and  in  Hanover  through  the  Lutheran  Con- 
sistorium.  The  German  colony  in  London  which  had  ex- 
isted for  four  or  five  centuries  before  was  augmented  by 
persons  of  influence  attracted  thither  by  the  nearer  rela- 
tions of  the  two  countries.  But  before  the  accession  of 
the  House  of  Hanover,  in  17 14,  the  Lutheran  influence 
had  been  strengthened  by  Prince  George  of  Denmark,  the 
husband  of  Queen  Anne  (1702-14). 

Trinity  Lutheran  Church,  in  Trinity  Lane,  had  once' 
been  a  Swedish  Church,  but  from  the  year  161 8  had 
fallen  into  the  possession  of  Germans  from  Hamburg,  and 
was  acknowledged  as  the  mother-church.  At  the  close  of 
the  century  it  was  on  the  decline,  ascribed  to  the  neglect 
of  the  Congregational  school. 

St.  Mary's  Church  in  the  Savoy,  generally  known  as 
the  Savoy  Chapel,  from  the  district  in  which  it  stood,  was 
founded  in  1692,  and  was  the  most  flourishing  of  the  con- 
gregations. Here  the  best  German  families  in  London 
had  their  spiritual   home.      Its  burial-ground  was  conse- 


THE  LONDON  LUTHERANS.  1 43 

crated  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  1721.  It  re- 
ceived generous  gifts  from  royalty  and  others  in  high 
places.  Sir  William  Chambers  was  the  architect  of  the 
church  built  in  1 768. 

Still  more  conspicuous,  because  of  Its  being  very  exclu- 
sive, was  the  German  Court  Chapel  at  St.  James's,  endowed 
by  Prince  George  of  Denmark,  attended  chiefly  by  Han- 
over officials  and  German  persons  of  rank  visiting  London. 
The  chapel  was  under  the  general  supervision  of  the  Bishop 
of  London,  and  a  translation  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  was  used  with  the  Halle  hymn-book  in  the  ser- 
vices. 

Besides  these,  there  w^ere  St.  George's  Church  in  Good- 
mansfields,  Zion's  Church  in  Brown's  Lane,  Spitalfields,  and 
in  1788  "an  ephemeral"  German  "Philadelphia  Church" 
in  Whitechapel. 

Two  pastors  of  the  German  Court  Chapel  were  especially 
interested  in  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  Lutherans  in  Amer- 
ica. A.  W.  Bohme  was  an  alumnus  of  Halle,  whose  course 
must  have  corresponded  almost  exactly  with  that  of  Justus 
Falckner,  since  he  was  a  student  there  from  1693  to  1698. 
He  was  actable-inspector"  at  the  Orphan  House.  He 
went  to  England  in  1701  to  become  tutor  in  several  Ger- 
man families,  and  in  1 705  was  appointed  pastor  by  Prince 
George,  remaining  such  until  his  death,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
nine,  in  1722.  He  w^as  a  writer  of  unwearied  activity, 
and  translated  Arndt's  "  True  Christianity  "  and  "  Paradise- 
Garden,"  besides  a  number  of  the  writings  of  Francke,  the 
"  Reports "  of  the  Orphan  House  at  Halle  and  of  the 
missions  in  India  into  English.  He  wrote  a  "  History  of 
the  Reformation  in  England."  It  was  through  his  inter- 
cession that  Queen  Anne  showed  marked  kindness  to  the 
Palatinates,  and  provided  for  them  a  home  in  America. 
The  same  year  she  endowed  a  "  Free  Table  "  in  the  Halle 


144  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

Orphan  House.  When  John  Conrad  Weiser  visited  Eng- 
land in  the  interests  of  the  settlement  at  Schoharie,  both 
Bohme  and  Pastor  Ruperti  of  the  Savoy  Church  cham- 
pioned his  cause.  From  good  motives  he  sent  Van  Dieren 
to  America  as  a  colporteur.  Among  his  writings  we  find  : 
"  Admonition  to  the  Scattered  Palatinates  and  Other  Ger- 
mans in  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Carolina,  and  Other 
American  Provinces."  ^ 

A  still  more  active  friend  of  the  emigrants  to  America 
was  Frederick  Michael  Ziegenhagen,  the  successor  of  Bohme, 
a  Pomeranian,  born  in  1694,  who,  after  a  pastorate  in  Han- 
over, was  pastor  at  the  Royal  Chapel  from  1722  to  1776. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  an  incessant  reader  of  the  writings 
of  Spener.  The  missions  in  India  engaged  his  constant 
attention  and  support.  They  had  no  more  zealous  and 
influential  friend.  In  1734  his  appeal  on  behalf  of  the 
spiritual  interests  of  the  Germans  in  Pennsylvania  was 
widely  circulated  throughout  Germany.  With  Urlsperger, 
he  cooperated  in  exciting  the  interest  of  the  Society  for 
the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge  in  the  Salzburgers, 
and  aiding  them  to  America.  It  was  through  him  that 
Muhlenberg  was  called.  To  the  end  of  his  life,  in  1777, 
he  took  the  deepest  interest  in  the  growing  Lutheran 
Church  in  America,  and  by  his  extensive  correspondence 
and  wide  influence  contributed  much  to  its  permanent  es- 
tablishment and  welfare. 

For  a  short  time  Dr.  Samuel  Urlsperger  was  connected 
with  the  same  chapel  (it  always  had  two  pastors)  previous 
to  his  call  to  Augsburg  and  the  important  work  there  ac- 
complished for  the  Salzburgers.  Urlsperger  had  met 
Bohme  In  1 709  on  a  trip,  and  went  to  England  the  suc- 
ceeding year,  when  twenty-five  years  old.     There  he  be- 

*  Jocher's  "  Allegemeines  Gelehrten  Lexicon,"  vol.  i.,  p.  11 70. 


THE  LONDON  PASTORS.  1 45 

came  a  member  of  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Chris- 
tian Knowledge,  which  he  afterward  interested  in  the 
transportation  and  assistance  of  the  Salzburgers.  The 
names  of  Drs.  Gerdes  and  Krauter  of  Trinity  Church  also 
appear  in  the  Halle  ''Reports"  as  active  friends  of  the 
congregations  in  America.  Toward  the  close  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  (1770)  Dr.  J.  C.  Velthusen  was  one  of  the 
court-preachers.  Afterward,  as  professor  and  superintend- 
ent at  Helmstadt,  he  became  to  the  Lutherans  of  North 
Carolina  what  Ziegenhagen  was  to  those  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Urlsperger  to  those  of  Georgia,  securing  for  them  im- 
portant aid  from  the  same  society  that  had  aided  the  Salz- 
burgers. 

Besides  serving  as  channels  whereby  the  wants  of  the 
Lutherans  in  America  became  known  and  relieved,  the 
London  Lutheran  churches  became  models  for  the  organi- 
zation of  Lutheran  congregations  in  America.  The  reasons 
were  obvious.  They  were  Lutheran  congregations  officially 
approved  by  the  British  Government.  Even  the  German 
Reformed  Church  in  Philadelphia  proposed  in  1764  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  Bishop  of  London  to  use 
**  the  liturgy  and  service  of  the  Church  of  England,  or  a 
translation  thereof  in  the  German,  as  used  in  the  King's 
Gennaji  Chapel.''  ^ 

A  similar  reason  determined  its  adoption  by  the  Salz- 
burgers in  Georgia,  acting  under  the  auspices  of  the  Eng- 
lish Society  for  the  Propagation  of  Christian  Knowledge.- 
When  it  is  remembered  that  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
was  compiled  chiefly  from  Lutheran  sources,  and  that  in 
the  Sunday  service,"  except  the  order  for  the  communion, 

1  "  Hallesclie  Nachrichten,"  new  edition,  p.  23. 

2  See  entry  of  Boltzius,  March  19  and  23,  1734,  in  "Urlspergerische  Nach- 
richten." 


146  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

there  are  no  divergences  from  Lutheran  principles,  there 
was  not  as  much  confusion  in  this  plan  as  might  at  first 
appear.  It  is  difficult,  however,  to  understand  how  the 
order  for  the  communion  was  adopted  by  Lutheran  con- 
gregations. 

Muhlenberg  has  left  on  record  the  statement  that  he 
and  Brunnholtz  and  Handschuh  prepared  the  first  liturgy 
for  the  Pennsylvania  congregations  after  the  model  of  that 
found  in  the  order  for  the  Savoy  congregation  in  London.^ 
This  order  declares  in  the  preface  ^  that  it  is  mostly  a  trans- 
lation of  the  order  in  use  in  Amsterdam,  and  that  no 
change  was  made  except  for  urgent  reasons.  This,  how- 
ever, does  not  apply  to  the  liturgical  portion.  The  Am- 
sterdam church  organization  influenced  that  of  our  churches 
in  two  ways :  first,  through  the  Dutch  churches  of  New 
York ;  and  secondly,  through  the  German  churches  of 
London.  A  fundamental  error  in  the  organization  of  the 
Savoy  congregation  severely  criticised  by  one  of  its  own 
pastors,  was  that  the  elders,  **  in  violation  of  all  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  Protestant  church  polity,  the  custom 
of  all  well-ordered  churghes,  and  all  prudence,  excluded 
their  preacher  from  all  participation  in  the  external  affairs 
of  the  church."  "^  The  congregation  was  governed  by  a 
council  of  twelve  elders,  six  of  whom  were  elected  annually. 

Two  societies  have  already  been  mentioned  which  from 
England  aided  very  materially  in  the  beginnings  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  America.  Both  were  founded  by 
Rev.  Dr.  Nicholas  Bray,  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England  who  had  visited  America,  under  the  appointment 
of  the  Bishop  of  London,  for  the  purpose  of  investigating 

1  Mann's  "Life  of  Muhlenberg,"  p.  184. 

2  We  have  two  copies  of  the  "  Kirchenordnung  "  of  St.  Mary's  Church, 
Savoy,  before  us,  as  we  write,  one  of  17 18  and  the  other  of  1743. 

3  Carkhardt,  p.  94. 


THE  ENGLISH  SOCIETIES.  1 47 

the  spiritual  condition  of  the  colonies.  The  older  was 
the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge, 
whose  familiar  initials,  S.  P.  C.  K.,  are  read  on  the  books 
which  it  still  pubHshes.  It  was  founded  in  1698,  primarily 
as  a  book  and  tract  society.  It  had  in  view  the  establish- 
ment of  parochial  libraries  in  America,  of  catechetical  libra- 
ries in  England,  and  the  general  distribution  of  good  books. 
It  provided  for  the  founding  and  care  of  schools  upon 
church  principles,  the  teaching  of  paupers  in  the  work- 
houses, and  especially  their  instruction  in  the  catechism. 
Thence  it  extended  its  sphere  to  the  improvement  of 
prisons.  It  finally  was  occupied  also  with  schemes  for  the 
conversion  of  Quakers  and  Romanists.  Its  members  were 
of  two  classes,  active  and  corresponding ;  among  the  latter 
were  not  only  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  but  also 
prominent  pastors  and  professors  of  both  the  Lutheran 
and  Reformed  churches  on  the  Continent.  It  entered 
heartily  into  the  support  of  the  Lutheran  missions  in  India, 
after  they  had  passed  out  of  the  control  of  the  Danes, 
furnishing  the  missionaries  with  money,  a  printing-press, 
and  printing  materials,  and  finally  undertaking  through 
them  an  extension  of  missionary  work.  It  had  a  close 
connection  and  thorough  understanding  with  the  authorities 
at  Halle,  with  whom  they  were  probably  brought  into  close 
relations  through  the  Lutheran  pastors  in  London. 

The  other  was  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  founded  in  1701,  for  supplying 
ministers  and  missionaries  in  the  English  colonies.  This 
society  supported  most  of  the  rectors  of  the  congregations 
in  America  that  afterward  became  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  of  the  United  States,  and,  as  we  have  seen, 
gave  important  assistance  to  the  Swedish  pastors.  The 
two  societies  are  often  confounded,  as  the  boundary  be- 
tween their  spheres  does  not  seem  to  have  been  always 


148  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

accurately  observed.  The  Lutheran  Church  in  America 
should  always  hold  in  grateful  remembrance  the  services 
thus  rendered,  as  she  also  expects  the  English  Church  to 
acknowledge  the  debt  she  owes  to  the  Lutherans  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  The  benefits  of  earnest  Christian  activ- 
ity cannot  be  confined  within  the  particular  communion  in 
which  they  start,  but  flow  forth  to  others,  to  return  with 
increased  blessing.  Were  like  generosity  shown  the  Lu- 
theran Church  in  America  in  later  days  in  its  efforts  to  grap- 
ple with  the  great  home-missionary  problem  before  it,  in 
connection  with  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Lutheran 
emigrants  for  whom  it  is  its  duty  to  care,  the  results  would 
be  far  greater  than  by  any  other  mode  of  attempting  to 
hold  them  for  Christ  and  his  church. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  among  other  societies  whose 
organization  was  suggested  by  the  good  work  done  by 
these  two  English  organizations  was  the  Swedish  Society 
pro  fide  et  Chi'istianisvw,  founded  in  1711.^  Among  the 
corresponding  members,  whose  duty  it  was  to  report  once 
a  year  concerning  the  condition  of  the  church  where  they 
lived,  noteworthy  conversions,  deaths  of  godly  persons,  and 
edifying  books  published,  we  find  in  1784  some  strange 
combinations.  On  one  page  are  Ernesti,  Wesley,  and 
Gotze ;  on  another,  Muhlenberg,  Zollikofer,  and  Richard 
Peters.     This  confusion  belongs,  however,  to  a  later  period. 

We  can  do  no  more  than  merely  allude  here  to  negotia- 
tions which  were  in  progress  during  the  first  decade  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  philosopher 
Leibnitz  and  the  court-preacher  Jablonski  at  Berlin,  who 
had  been  consecrated  a  Moravian  bishop,  and  was  a  grand- 
son of  Comenius,  for  the  union  of  the  Protestant  Church 
in  Germany  with  the  Church  of  England.  This  project 
was  warmly   supported   by   Frederick   I.    of   Prussia   and 

1  See  account  in  "A.  H.  E."  (N.  T.),  vol.  ii.,  p.  181 ;   vol.  x.,  p.  60. 


UNION  MOVEMENTS.  1 49 

Queen  Anne,  and  was  favored  by  Archbishop  Sharp  of 
Canterbury.  It  included  the  scheme  of  the  introduction 
of  the  hierarchy,  the  king  having  already  named  Von 
Sanden  and  Ursinus,  another  of  his  court-preachers,  as 
bishops.  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  translated 
into  German  and  published  in  1 704,  with  a  view  to  its  in- 
troduction into  the  Royal  Chapel  at  Berlin.  Even  the  time 
was  appointed,  viz.,  the  first  Sunday  in  Advent.  But  an 
unfortunate  decision  of  the  Helmstadt  Faculty,  that  it 
would  not  be  a  sin  for  a  Protestant  princess  to  become  a 
Roman  Catholic  in  order  to  marry  a  prince  of  that  faith, 
justly  offended  the  archbishop,  and  interrupted  the  negoti- 
ations. In  1 7 10  they  were  resumed,  but  before  anything 
could  be  accompHshed,  the  deaths  of  the  King  of  Prussia, 
the  Queen  of  England,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
entirely  frustrated  them.^  They  are  mentioned  here  as 
one  of  the  indications  of  the  warm  sympathy  which  sub- 
sisted in  Europe  between  the  two  churches,  even  apart 
from  their  closer  connection  within  one  country,  and  as 
one  of  the  factors  explaining  the  ease  with  which  Luther- 
ans in  America  were  often  content  with  regarding  the 
English  Church  as  their  own,  translated  into  another  lan- 
guage. 

1  Hassencamp,  in  Walch,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  191-214. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE    PERSECUTIONS   OF   THE    SALZBURGERS   AND   THE 
SALZBURG   COLONY    IN    GEORGIA. 

German  emigration  to  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  was 
prepared  for  by  the  explorations  of  the  German,  John 
Lederer,  commissioned  by  Governor  Berkeley  of  Virginia 
to  explore  the  lands  south  and  west  of  the  James  River  in 
1669  and  1670.  The  colony  of  Palatinates  and  Swiss  who 
settled  Newbern  (New  Berne),  N.  C,  in  17 10,  lost  sixty  of 
their  number  the  next  year  by  an  Indian  massacre.  Their 
leader,  Baron  de  Graffenreid,  shortly  afterward  abandoned 
them,  and  left  them  in  sore  distress  by  invalidating  their 
titles  to  the  land.  Their  religious  history  has  not  been 
traced.  There  were  German  Lutherans  in  Charleston  when 
the  Salzburgers  arrived,  whose  presence  was  due  probably 
to  Queen  Anne's  donation  of  land  in  South  Carolina  for 
Palatinate  refugees.^  In  the  Swiss  colony  which  settled 
Purrysburg,  S.  C,  in  1732,  there  were  Lutherans,  who 
were  afterward  spiritually  cared  for  by  the  Salzburgers.- 

'But  the  foundation  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  the  South 
was  laid  by  the  emigrants  we  have  just  mentioned.  The 
history  of  their  persecutions,  their  expulsion  from  home, 
their  wanderings  through  Germany,  their  coming  to  Amer- 
ica, is  one  of  the  most  romantic  and  inspiring  chapters  in 
church  history.  It  belongs  not  simply  to  the  Lutheran 
Church,  but  is  an  honor  to  our  country,  and  a  priceless 

*  Bernheim,  p.  82.  2  Jhid.^  pp.  88  sqq. 

150 


THE  EXILES   OF  IG84.  151 

heritage  of  our  common  Christianity.  A  feeble  handful  it 
was  that  crossed  the  sea.  They  have  not  grown  to  any 
large  proportions ;  but  the  spiritual  influences  which  they 
transmitted  are  felt  far  and  wide  throughout  the  Christian 
world.    ' 

For  two  hundred  years  the  attempt  had  been  made  to 
suppress  the  Lutheran  faith  in  the  duchy  of  Salzburg.  But 
the  seed  planted  in  the  sixteenth  century  by  Paul  Speratus 
and  Stephen  Agricola  continued  to  grow  and  to  bring  forth 
fruit  notwithstanding  its  persecution.  In  the  beginning  of 
the  seventeenth  century  it  threatened  to  become  a  mighty 
popular  movement,  that  would  gain  the  supremacy.  The 
banishments  and  confiscations  of  1588  were  revived  in  16 14, 
forcing  the  braver  into  exile,  and  the  more  timid  into  silence 
and  retirement,  in  the  hope  of  better  times.  All  through 
the  period  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  the  Salzburg  Luther- 
ans enjoyed  peace  by  calmly  submitting  to  all  external 
regulations.  The  authorities  knew  little  of  the  private  in- 
fluences that  were  growing,  the  worship  in  cellars  and  in 
mountain-fastnesses,  the  careful  evangelical  training  which 
children  were  receiving,  the  Bibles  and  devotional  works 
that  were  in  circulation.  When,  at  last,  a  congregation  of 
*'  secret  Lutherans  "  was  discovered  at  Tefferegenthal  in 
1683,  which  had  lived  and  grown  by  these  means,  two  of 
their  leaders  were  imprisoned  for  months,  and  at  last  com- 
pelled to  prepare  a  public  confession  of  their  faith.  The 
result  was,  that,  in  1684,  all  Lutheran  books  that  could  be 
found  were  burned,  and  all  Lutherans  given  the  alternative 
of  renunciation  of  their  faith,  or  banishment,  with  the  loss 
of  their  property  and  the  surrender  of  their  children.  Over 
one  thousand  were  banished,  and  they  lost  over  six  hun- 
dred children.  The  indignation  which  was  generally 
aroused  throughout  Europe  at  this  direct  violation  of  the 
terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Westphalia  was  answered  by  the 


1^2  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Char  ix. 

claim  that  the  Salzburgers  were  neither  Lutheran  nor  Re- 
formed, and  therefore  could  not  claim  its  protection. 

The  persecution  was  suddenly  terminated  by  the  death 
of  the  archbishop.  Joseph  Schaitberger,  one  of  the  two 
leaders  who  had  been  imprisoned,  and  the  composer  of  the 
Confession  of  the  Salzburgers,  from  his  exile  in  Nuremberg 
continued  to  comfort  and  strengthen  those  who  remained 
in  Salzburg  by  numerous  publications  which  he  wrote  and 
sent  among  them,  Schaitberger  himself  had  lost  his  chil- 
dren, who  were  educated  to  regard  him  a  heretic,  while  he 
labored  for  the  rest  of  his  life  amidst  the  most  extreme 
poverty.  Even  more  influential  among  his  countrymen 
than  his  letters  and  devotional  books  were  the  hymns  which 
he  composed  and  sent  among  them,  and  which  not  only 
were  especially  adapted  to  their  sad  lot,  but  also  reflect 
most  clearly  the  experience  and  circumstances  of  the 
author.  He  lived  to  see  the  final  expulsion  of  those  for 
whom  he  labored,  and  died  in  1733. 

The  crisis  came  with  the  accession  of  Leopold  Anton, 
Count  of  Firmian,  to  the  archbishopric  in  1728.  **  He 
would  drive  the  heretics  out  of  the  country,"  he  is  reported 
as  saying,  '*  even  though  thorns  and  thistles  should  grow 
upon  the  fields."  The  first  attempts  at  persecution,  instead 
of  intimidating,  only  aroused  the  courage  of  the  oppressed. 
They  knew  how  to  appeal  for  redress  to  the  evangelical 
estates,  convened  at  the  not  far  distant  Regensburg.  The 
archbishop  undertook  an'  enrollment.  Over  twenty  thou- 
sand joyfully  entered  their  names  as  Lutherans.  The  "  cov- 
enant of  salt "  they  made  at  Swazach  was  followed  not  only 
by  the  denial  of  all  rights  of  burial  and  marriage  and 
baptism,  but  by  the  quartering  upon  evangelical  families 
of  Austrian  soldiers,  and  the  imprisonment  of  those  who 
participated  in  their  devotional  meetings.  In  vain  the 
evangelical  estates   interceded  for  the   appointment  of  a 


THE  EXILES   OF  1731.  1 5  3 

commission,  composed  of  both  Protestants  and  Catholics, 
to  adjust  the  differences. 

Meanwhile  an  embassy  to  the  court  of  Berlin  was  suc- 
cessful. The  King  of  Prussia,  Frederick  William  I.,  prom- 
ised to  receive  all  who,  because  of  their  faith,  were  com- 
pelled to  leave  their  homes.  But  before  this  news  was 
promulgated,  "the  Emigration  Patent"  of  October  31, 
1 73 1,  had  already  commanded  all  Protestants  to  leave 
Salzburg,  upon  the  charge  of  having  conspired  against  the 
Catholic  religion,  in  the  **  covenant  of  salt."  Those  with- 
out property  were  to  leave  within  three  days ;  those  having 
property  were  allowed  from  one  month  to  three  to  dispose 
of  it.  Without  regard  to  the  rigors  of  the  rapidly  approach- 
ing winter,  they  were  forced  away,  going  whither  they 
knew  not.  They  only  knew  that,  besides  their  God,  they 
had  a  warm  friend  in  the  King  of  Prussia.  But  he  knew 
not  in  the  beginning  what  he  had  undertaken.  The  few 
thousand  on  which  he  had  counted  at  the  beginning 
amounted  to  over  fourteen  thousand  who  passed  through 
Berlin  only,  not  to  mention  others  who  took  a  different 
route. 

But  besides  the  king,  the  hearts  of  the  people  were 
deeply  stirred  by  the  march  of  the  exiles,  which  was  soon 
converted  almost  into  a  triumphal  procession.  A  writer  of 
the  same  century  describes  it  graphically : 

''  The  beginning  occurred  at  the  end  of  the  year  i  731,  in 
the  severe  winter,  Memmingen,  Weilheim,  Kaufbeuren, 
Augsburg,  Kempten,  Ulm,  were  the  first  evangelical  places 
which  they  entered.  In  the  following  year  they  went 
mostly  through  Swabia,  Franconia,  Thuringia,  Saxony,  and 
Brandenburg.  They  were  everywhere  received  most  cor- 
dially, and  treated  most  generously.  In  the  cities  they 
were  met  by  the  magistrates,  the  clergy,  the  schools,  and 
the  entire  body  of  citizens      They  were  received  by  the 


154  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

preachers  with  consolatory  and  edifying  discourses  as  they 
walked  two  by  two  through  the  cities,  or,  where  time 
allowed,  they  were  conducted  to  the  churches  amidst  the 
ringing  of  all  the  bells  and  with  appropriate  music.  What 
occurred  in  the  cities  was  repeated  in  the  villages.  The 
emigrants  sang  with  joyful  voice  as  they  entered  and  as 
they  departed.  Their  strange  accent  rendered  their  strains 
all  the  more  pathetic,  so  that  many  a  heart  was  touched 
and  opened  to  bestow  kind  gifts.  "^ 

Among  the  hymns  they  sang  was  first  of  all  Luther's 
**  Ein  feste  Berg  ist  unser  Gott." 

Take  they  then  our  life, 
Goods,  fame,  child,  and  wife ; 
When  their  worst  is  done, 
They  yet  have  nothing  won, 
The  kingdom  ours  remaineth. 

Next  to  this  came  what  was  peculiarly  their  own  hymn, 
the  composition  of  their  leader,  Schaitberger,  the  voice  of 
triumphant  faith  rising  above  the  severe  conflicts  through 
which  he  passed : 

An  exile  poor,  and  nothing  more. 

This  is  my  sole  profession ; 
Banished  from  home,  of  God's  pure  Word 

To  make  a  clear  confession. 

O  Jesus  mine,  I  know  full  well 

This  is  the  way  thou  wentest. 
Thy  steps  we'll  follow,  dearest  Lord, 

And  bear  what  thou  hast  sent  us. 

Thy  precious  Name  I  have  confessed, 

Thy  Love  dispels  all  terror. 
Though  lips  loud  speak,  and  plots  be  laid 

To  slay  me  for  my  error. 

1  "A.  H.  E."  (N.  T.),  vol.  ix.  (1783),  p.  45- 


THE  HYMNS  OF   THE  EXILES.  1 55 

Though  all  I  have  be  torn  away, 

I  still  possess  this  treasure : 
God  dwells  with  me ;   and  his  pure  faith 

Is  wealth  above  all  measure. 

God!   as  thou  wilt,  then;  here  am  I, 

With  thee  to  stay  forever. 
Thy  will  is  mine,  and  I  am  thine ; 

Nothing  from  thee  shall  sever. 

So  forth  I  go  from  my  dear  home. 

0  Lord,  the  tears  are  starting ; 

As  through  strange  streets  I  press  my  way, 

1  think  of  the  sad  parting. 

A  country,  Lord,  I  ask  of  thee, 

Where  I  thy  Word  may  cherish, 
Where,  day  and  night,  within  my  heart 

The  fruits  of  faith  may  flourish. 

And  though  within  this  vale  of  tears 

The  humblest  lot  be  given, 
A  better  dwelling  God  provides 

Before  his  throne  in  heaven. 

Koch,  in  his  "  Geschichte  des  Kirchenlieds,"  narrates  that 
in  Berlin,  Frankfort,  and  Darmstadt  they  were  welcomed 
by  Decius'  paraphrase  of  the  *'  Gloria  in  Excelsis,"  to  which 
they  responded  in  the  above  hymn.  Other  hymns  they 
sang  on  their  march  were :  ''  Why  troublest  thou  thyself, 
my  heart  ?  "  ;  ''  What  our  Father  does  is  well  "  ;  **  My  God, 
I  leave  to  thee  my  ways " ;  "  From  God  I  ne'er  shall 
sever." 

One  band  of  exiles  the  king  met  outside  of  BerHn,  and 
asked  them  to  sing  a  favorite  hymn,  which  he  then  started, 
and  in  which  the  whole  muhitude  of  exiles  and  spectators 
joined  with  heart  and  soul : 

On  God,  my  faithful  God, 
I  trust  in  every  need. 


156  THE  LUTHERAK^S.  [Chap.  ix. 

"  A  living  picture  was  presented  of  the  departure  of  the 
children  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt.  There  were  venerable 
men,  with  white  locks,  bent  backs,  and  with  trembling 
limbs,  among  others  in  the  prime  of  life  and  still  others  in 
the  bloom  of  youth ;  infirm  old  women,  and  alongside  of 
them  strong  and  active  wives,  young  maidens,  and  fair 
girls ;  tender  children  following  their  fathers  or  led  by  the 
hand  with  quick  steps,  or  infants  resting  in  their  mothers' 
arms,  or  hanging  about  their  fathers'  necks ;  wagons  carry- 
ing the  baggage,  the  most  aged,  the  sick,  and  the  babes 
who  had  but  lately  seen  the  light.  We  would  naturally 
expect  that  these  homeless  ones  would  fill  the  country 
through  which  they  would  pass  with  tears  and  lamenta- 
tions ;  but  while  the  cheeks  of  many  who  received  them 
were  moistened,  and  deep  sighs  showed  their  sympathy, 
the  bands  of  exiles  went  forth  in  triumph,  and  the  thought 
of  their  affliction  was  relieved  by  their  trust  in  God,  that, 
even  on  a  foreign  soil,  and  under  another  heaven,  and  in  a 
land  which  they  had  not  seen  with  their  eyes,  and  in  a  way 
as  yet  entirely  unknown,  they  would  find  an  abiding-place 
and  a  peaceful  dwelHng."  ^ 

This  description  was  written  while  witnesses  of  these 
scenes  were  still  alive. 

The  story  as  retold  is  ever  awakening  new  interest.  A 
late  bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  Pennsyl- 
vania (Right  Rev.  William  Bacon  Stevens)  has  eloquently 
said:  **  Marshaled  under -no  ensigns  but  the  banners  of  the 
cross,  led  by  no  chieftains  but  their  spiritual  pastors,  armed 
with  no  weapons  but  their  Bibles  and  hymn-books,  they 
journeyed  on,  everywhere  singing  paeans,  not  of  military 
victory,  but  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  to  Him  who,  though 
they  were  cast  out  and  oppressed,  had  yet  made  them  more 
than  conquerors.  "2 

1  Ibid,,  pp.  45-47. 

2  "  History  of  Georgia"  (New  York,  1847),  p.  105. 


A   NEIV  HOME   IN  GEORGIA.  157 

The  simple  piety  of  the  people  was  manifested  in  the 
king's  interview  with  a  boy  of  fourteen,  who  had  left  his 
Catholic  parents  in  Salzburg  to  accompany  the  exiles.  The 
king  asked  him  how  he  was  induced  to  leave  his  parents, 
and  received  the  answer,  "  '  He  that  loveth  father  or  mother 
more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me.'  "  ''  But  how  can  you 
do  without  them  ?  "  Again  came  the  answer,  '* '  When  my 
father  and  mother  forsake  me,  the  Lord  will  take  me  up.'  " 

Goethe  has  drawn  the  plot  of  his  ''  Hermann  and  Doro- 
thea "  from  an  incident  in  their  experience. 

Of  the  emigrants,  over  twenty  thousand  were  perma- 
nently settled  in  Germany,  mostly  in  Lithuania,  the  ex- 
pense to  the  King  of  Prussia  amounting  to  over  a  million  of 
thalers. 

Dr.  Samuel  Urlsperger,  pastor  of  St.  Anna's  Church, 
Augsburg,  wished  to  be  of  some  special  service  to  the 
Salzburgers.  The  self-denials  and  sufferings  of  the  still 
surviving  Schaitberger  moved  him.  He  wrote  an  account 
of  them,  together  with  the  story  of  the  emigration,  for  his 
friends  in  England.  The  Society  for  the  Promotion  of 
Christian  Knowledge  came  to  his  assistance  in  a  very 
important  way.  While  it  did  not  regard  itself  justified  in 
using  its  own  proper  funds  for  the  purpose,  it  became  the 
almoner  of  extensive  contributions  collected  all  over  Europe 
for  sending  some  of  the  exiles  to  America.  It  thus  pro- 
vided for  the  carrying  of  fifty  families  to  Georgia  for  the 
new  colony  that  was  being  founded  by  General  Oglethorpe. 

The  story  of  their  voyage  to  America  has  been  very 
comprehensively  told  in  a  passage  in  Bancroft's  ''  History 
of  the  United  States,"  '  that  in  pathos  is  excelled  by  nothing 
that  he  has  written : 

"  When  the  Roman  Catholic  archbishop  who  was  the 
ruler  of  Salzburg  with  merciless  bigotry  drove  out  of  his 
dominions  the  Lutherans  whom  horrid  tortures  and  relent- 

1  Revised  edition  (1883),  vol.  ii.,  pp.  288  sqq. 


1^8  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

less  persecution  could  not  force  to  renounce  their  Protestant 
faith,  Frederick  William  I.  of  Prussia  planted  a  part  of  them 
on  freeholds  in  his  kingdom ;  others,  on  the  invitation  of 
the  Society  in  England  for  Propagating  the  Gospel,  pre- 
pared to  emigrate  to  the  Savannah.  A  free  passage; 
provisions  in  Georgia  for  a  whole  season ;  land  for  them- 
selves and  their  children,  free  for  ten  years,  then  to  be  held 
for  a  small  quit-rent ;  the  privileges  of  native  Englishmen ; 
freedom  of  worship — these  were  the  promises  made,  ac- 
cepted, and  honorably  fulfilled.  On  the  last  day  of  Octo- 
ber, 1733,  'the  evangelical  community,'  well  supplied  with 
Bibles  and  hymn-books,  catechisms  and  books  of  devo- 
tion, conveying  in  one  wagon  their  few  chattels,  in  two 
other  covered  ones  their  feebler  companions  and  especially 
their  little  ones,  after  a  discourse  and  prayer  and  benedic- 
tions, cheerfully,  and  in  the  name  of  God,  began  their 
pilgrimage.  History  need  not,  stop  to  tell  what  charities 
cheered  them  on  their  journey,  what  towns  were  closed 
against  them  by  Roman  Catholic  magistrates,  or  how  they 
entered  Frankfort  on  the  Main  two  by  two  in  cheerful 
procession,  singing  spiritual  songs.  As  they  floated  down 
the  Main,  and  between  the  castled  crags,  the  vineyards, 
and  the  white- walled  towns  that  adorn  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine,  their  conversation,  amid  hymns  and  prayers,  was  of 
justification  and  of  sanctification  and  of  standing  fast  in  the 
Lord.  At  Rotterdam  they  were  joined  by  two  preachers, 
Boltzius  and  Gronau,  both  disciplined  in  charity  at  the 
Orphan  House  in  Halle. 

*'A  passage  of  six  days  carried  them  from  Rotterdam 
to  Dover,  where  several  of  the  trustees  visited  them,  and 
provided  considerately  for  their  wants.  In  January,  I734, 
they  set  sail  for  their  new  homes.  The  majesty  of  the 
ocean  quickened  their  sense  of  God's  omnipotence  and 
wisdom;   and,  as  they  lost  sight  of  land,  they  broke  out 


THE    VOYAGE.  1 59 

into  a  hymn  to  his  glory.  The  setting  sun,  after  a  calm, 
so  kindled  the  sea  and  the  sky,  that  words  could  not  ex- 
press their  rapture,  and  they  cried  out,  '  How  lovely  the 
creation!  How  infinitely  lovely  the  Creator!  '  When  the 
wind"  was  adverse  they  prayed;  and,  as  it  changed,  one 
opened  his  mind  to  the  other  on  the  power  of  prayer, 
even  the  prayer  '  of  a'  man  subject  to  like  passions  as 
we  are.'  A  devout  listener  confessed  himself  to  be  an 
unconverted  man ;  and  they  reminded  him  of  the  promise 
to  him  that  is  poor  and  of  a  contrite  spirit,  and  trem- 
bleth  at  the  Word.  As  they  sailed  pleasantly  with  a 
favoring  breeze,  at  the  hour  of  evening  prayer  they  made 
a  covenant  with  each  other,  like  Jacob  of  old,  and  resolved 
by  the  grace  of  Christ  to  cast  all  strange  gods  into  the 
depths  of  the  sea.  In  February  a  storm  grew  so  high  that 
not  a  sail  could  be  set;  and  they  raised  their  voices  in 
prayer  and  song  amid  the  tempest,  for  to  love  the  Lord 
Jesus  as  a  brother  gave  consolation.  At  Charleston,  Ogle- 
thorpe, on  the  1 8th  of  March,  1734,  bade  them  welcome; 
and  in  five  days  more  the  wayfarers,  whose  home  was  be- 
yond the  skies,  pitched  their  tents  near  Savannah. 

''  It  remained  to  select  for  them  a  residence.  To  cheer 
their  principal  men  as  they  toiled  through  the  forest  and 
across  brooks,  Oglethorpe,  having  provided  horses,  joined 
the  party.  By  the  aid  of  blazed  trees  and  Indian  guides 
he  made  his  way  through  morasses ;  a  fallen  tree  served 
as  a  bridge  over  a  stream,  which  the  horses  swam  ;  at  night 
he  encamped  with  them  abroad  around  a  fire,  and  shared 
every  fatigue,  till  the  spot  for  their  village  was  chosen,  and, 
Hke  the  rivulet  which  formed  its  border,  was  called  Ebene- 
zer.  There  they  built  their  dwellings,  and  there  resolved 
to  raise  a  column  of  stone  in  token  of  gratitude  to  God, 
whose  providence  had  brought  them  safely  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth." 


l6o  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

The  King  of  England,  George  II.,  provided  for  the 
Georgia  colonists  a  special  commissioner,  who  was  to  see 
that  all  their  rights  were  granted.  Baron  Philip  George 
Frederick  von  Reck  was  a  young  nobleman,  then  twenty- 
three  years  old,  from  the  kingdom  of  Hanover,  as  the  king 
preferred  to  intrust  their  interests  to  a  German  rather  than 
to  an  English  subject. 

The  baron's  thorough  sympathy  with  them  was  strength- 
ened by  his  deep  religious  character,  which  is  manifest, 
although  unostentatiously,  in  his  published  diaries.  Shortly 
before  the  close  of  his  life,  and  after  having  been  a  state- 
counselor,  he  edited  an  edition  of  Luther's  "  Sermons  on 
the  Gospels  and  Epistles."  After  seeing  the  Salzburgers 
established  in  their  new  home,  he  made  an  extensive  tour 
along  the  Atlantic  coast,  in  which  he  gathered  together  the 
Lutherans  of  Philadelphia  on  Sunday,  and  edified  them  as 
he  was  able,  and  visited  New  Haven,  whose  "  Academy," 
with  three  professors  and  eighty  students,  living  at  an  ex- 
pense of  six  shillings  a  week,  he  described.  He  returned  to 
Germany  to  conduct  '*  the  third  transportation  "  to  Amer- 
ica in  1736,  and  the  succeeding  year  sailed  back  again,  to 
remain  in  Germany  permanently. 

Urlsperger  and  Francke  had  exercised  great  forethought 
in  the  selection  of  the  spiritual  guides  of  this  devout,  but, 
for  the  most  part,  ignorant,  people.  They  were  found  in 
John  Martin  Boltzius,  who  had  been  inspector  of  the  Latin 
school  at  Halle,  and  Israel  Christian  Gronau,  another  of  the 
Halle  teachers.  Their  salaries  and  those  of  their  successors 
were  provided  from  funds  procured  through  Urlsperger, 
and  forwarded  through  the  S.  P.  C.  K.  Besides  the  ties 
of  a  spiritual  character  that  bound  them  to  these  strange 
people,  another  was  added  when  before  long  they  married 
two  sisters,  daughters  of  a  poor  widow  among  the  Salz- 
burgers.    Boltzius   became  not  only  the  spiritual   leader, 


''  KEMINISCERE''    SUNDAY.  l6l 

but,  throughout  the  most  of  his  career,  the  business  head 
of  the  colony. 

The  emigrants  who  arrived  on  the  '*  Purisburg,"  March 
II,  1734,  were  only  the  advance-guard.  Early  in  1735 
the  "Prince  of  Wales"  brought  fifty-seven  more.  In 
February,  1736,  the  "  Simonds"  brought  Von  Reek's  sec- 
ond charge  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  Salzburgers,  and  with 
them  the  twoWesleys  and  Bishop  Nitzschmann  with  twenty- 
seven  Moravians.  A  fourth  band,  consisting  of  sixty-three 
persons,  arrived  in  1741.  Still  others  came  individually 
or  in  families ;  as  we  know  that  Muhlenberg  had  a  Salz- 
burg family  among  his  companions  across  the  Atlantic  in 
1742. 

As  the  two  pastors  were  journeying  toward  America, 
they  comforted  themselves  and  each  other  with  such  texts 
as  Joshua  i.  2  :  '*  Arise,  and  go  over  this  Jordan,  thou,  and 
all  this  people,  unto  the  land  which  I  do  give  to  them  "  ; 
Isaiah  xliii.  2  :  ''  When  thou  passest  through  the  waters,  I 
will  be  with  thee ;  and  through  the  rivers,  they  shall  not 
overflow  thee  "  ;  Isaiah  xlix.  10 :  *'  He  that  hath  mercy  on 
them  shall  lead  them,  even  by  the  springs  of  waters  shall 
he  guide  them  "  ;  Psalm  Ixii.  8  :  "  Trust  in  him  at  all  times  ; 
ye  people,  pour  out  your  heart  before  him :  God  is  a 
refuge  for  us."  So  when  they  had  finished  their  voyage 
and  reached  the  Savannah  River,  they  noted  the  appropri- 
ateness of  the  lessons  for  Reminiscere  Sunday,  and  deter- 
mined henceforth  to  keep  that  Sunday  as  a  memorial :  **  It 
was  really  edifying  to  us  that  we  came  to  the  borders  of 
the  promised  land  this  day,  when,  as  we  are  taught  by  its 
lessons  from  the  Gospel,  Jesus  came  to  the  seacoast  after 
he  had  endured  persecution  and  rejection  by  his  country- 
men." 

Ebenezer,  their  new  home,  was  twenty-five  miles  up  the 
Savannah  River.     Those  familiar  with  the  locality  in  recent 


1 62  •  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

times  have  considerable  difficulty  in  reconciling  the  glowing, 
poetically  colored  descriptions  of  the  enthusiastic  young 
baron  with  their  knowledge  of  the  same  scenes. ^  They 
were  liberally  treated  with  the  gift  of  three  lots  for  each 
family,  one  in  the  town  for  a  home,  another  beyond  the 
town  for  a  garden,  and  a  third  for  more  extensive  agricul- 
tural purposes — fifty  acres  in  all.  But  an  experience  of 
two  years  proved  that  the  location  was  as  unhealthful  as  it 
was  inconvenient,  and  thus  a  removal  to  another  site  six 
miles  eastward  was  necessary.  Industry,  thrift,  and  the 
able  management  of  their  senior  pastor,  and,  above  all,  the 
blessing  of  the  Lord,  brought  to  them  prosperity.  They 
enjoyed  the  fulfillment  of  the  promise  of  the  **  hundredfold  " 
to  those  who,  for  Christ's  name,  leave  all  .that  they  have. 
They  became  very  successful  in  the  raising  of  silk,  which 
reached,  in  1754,  if  the  report  be  correct,  what  seems  the 
almost  extravagant  amount  of  four  thousand  pounds.^  The 
manufacture  of  indigo  and  that  of  wooden  ware  were 
profitable  sources  of  income.  The  raising  of  cotton  was 
also  successfully  undertaken,  but  was  less  remunerative, 
because  modern  machinery  to  remove  the  seeds  was  not 
in  their  possession.  It  would  be  inconsistent  with  historical 
justice  to  claim  for  them  the  learning  which  one  might 
infer  from  the  following  reference  of  Professor  McMaster: 
"  In  the  library  were  books  written  in  thirteen  tongues. 
Nowhere  else  in  the  country  could  be  seen  so  fine  a  collec- 
tion of  works  in  Coptic,  in  Arabic,  in  Hebrew,  in  Chaldaic."^ 
But  their  religious  development  is  the  subject  of  the  deep- 
est interest.  *'  If  ever  pastors  had  their  whole  hearts  centered 
on  the  spiritual  welfare  of  their  people,  this  seems  to  have 
been  the  case  at  Ebenezer.  Their  first  reports  testify  to  the 
great  patience  and  contentment  of  their  hearers  in  all  their 

1  Strobe^.,  p.  66.  2  "A.  H.  E.,"  vol.  xx.,  p.  365. 

^  McMaster,  vol.  ii.,  p.  3. 


PASTORAL   EXFERIE.VCES.  1 63 

sufferings,  their  peculiar  delight  in  the  Word  of  God,  their 
insatiable  desire  to  hear  it  daily,  their  zealous  attention 
to  prayer,  and  the  good  proofs  of  their  conversion  and  of 
their  growth  in  faith  and  godliness."  1  As  time  advances 
their  hopes  are  not  disappointed.  They  grieve  over  seri- 
ous faults  in  the  lives  of  their  parishioners ;  they  are  com- 
pelled at  times  to  administer  severe  discipline.  But  these 
they  faithfully  note  as  exceptional  cases.  They  almost 
disappear  in  the  joy  with  which  the  pastors  trace  the  fruits 
of  the  Word,  at  the  bedsides  of  the  sick  and  dying,  in  the 
trials  even  of  little  children,  and  in  the  Christian  spirit 
shown  in  the  forgiveness  of  wrongs.-  We  can  enter  into 
the  sick-room  and  see  the  stricken  one  cheerfully  prepar- 
ing for  death  by  reading,  during  Passion  Week,  the  story 
of  her  Saviour's  suffering. -"^  Or  we  may  share  the  surprise 
of  the  pastor  himself  as  he  finds  a  devoted  husband  singing 
to  his  sinking  wife  a  hymn  of  Schaitberger,  so  unfamiliar 
to  him,  but  yet  so  rich  in  the  comfort  of  the  gospel,  that 
he  enters  it  in  full  on  his  journal  (September  10,  1735).^ 

My  Jesus  in  me  taketh  pleasure, 

I  was  baptized  at  his  command. 
Apparelled  thus  in  Christ,  my  treasure, 

Delivered  thus  from  death's  dread  hand, 
Joyful  and  confident  I  sing, 

Jesus  doth  my  salvation  bring. 

Thank  God,  my  race  hath  almost  ended, 

The  crisis  of  the  strife  is  o'er ; 
Jesus  to  me  his  hands  extendeth, 

I  shall  be  with  him  evermore. 
Therefore,  through  Jesus'  blood  I  pray, 

Grant  me  a  blessed  dying  day. 

1  "A.  H.  E.,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  938.  2  Uid.,  vol.  xvi.,  p.  896. 

3  Strobel,  p.  68. 

*  The  original  has  ten  stanzas.     "  Urlspergerische  Nachrichten,"  vol.  ii., 
P-  415- 


164  ^^^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

On  Christ,  by  faith,  my  soul  is  living; 

In  Christ,  by  faith,  I,  fearless,  die. 
My  Jesus  always  me  is  giving 

What  doth  my  every  want  supply. 
And  so  I  die  with  Jesus  here, 

That  I  may  live  with  Jesus  there. 

Thus  these  simple,  faithful  people  surprised  and  preached 
to  their  pastors.  We  can  go  to  one  of  the  congregations 
when  the  pastor  is  absent,  and  hear  the  services  proceeding 
as  in  his  presence,  except  that  the  reading  of  one  of  the 
sermons  of  Spener  on  the  gospel  or  epistle  for  the  day 
takes  the  place  of  the  pastor's  own  discourse ;  or  when  he 
is  present,  and  see  them  with  Bibles  in  hand  follow  his  read- 
ing of  the  lessons.  We  go  to  the  schools,  and  learn  that 
the  Salzburg  children  are  enjoying  the  instructions  of  those 
who  at  Halle  have  trained  able  and  learned  men  for  influ- 
ence, and  that  often,  and  for  long  periods,  there  are  no 
other  teachers.  The  hymns  to  be  sung  on  Sunday  are 
sung  every  day  of  the  preceding  week  in  the  school. 
Everything  suggests  the  patriarchal  period,  with  the  senior 
pastor  as  the  father  of  the  one  family  of  families.  An  ac- 
count published  at  Charleston  in  i  741  says  of  them  :  **  New 
Ebenezer  consists  of  about  one  hundred  persons  under  the 
government  of  Mr.  Boltzius,  their  pastor;  they  live  and 
labor  in  a  kind  of  community,  and  never  commix  or  associ- 
ate with  strangers."^ 

In  the  town,  besides  the  three  Sunday  services,  there 
was  a  Betstiinde  (vesper  service)  every  evening,  '*  after  the 
work  and  supper  were  over."  On  the  plantations  there 
were  services  with  sermons  every  fortnight,  and  twice  dur- 
ing the  week.  For  a  while  every  two  months  one  of  the 
pastors  preached  in  Savannah.  For  a  while  they  also  ad- 
ministered the  sacraments  to  the  Germans  at  Purrysburg, 

1  "A  True  and  Historical  Narrative  of  the  Colony  of  Georgia,"  by  Pat. 
Tailfer,  M.D.,  etc.  (Charleston,  S.  C,  1741),  p.  72. 


THE  SERVICES.  1 65 

S.  C.  The  sermons  were  preached  in  the  clearest  and 
simplest  way,  so  that  every  hearer  would  have  not  only  the 
divisions  but  the  subdivisions  deeply  impressed  upon  his 
mind. 

In  1736  Boltzius  gives  an  account  of  his  method  of 
teaching  the  catechism.  It  was  the  subject  of  explanation 
at  the  daily  evening  service.  The  preacher  inculcated  it 
for  the  first  time  upon  the  young,  and  refreshed  the  minds 
of  adults.  He  speaks  of  the  great  advantage  of  this  above 
weekl}'"  catechetical  instruction,  where  one  part  is  forgotten 
before  what  immediately  follows  it  is  considered,  and  notes 
the  deep  interest  of  the  people,  who  give  the  same  attend- 
ance on  these  exercises  as  is  accorded  the  regular  Sun- 
day services.  He  was  always  careful  to  limit  the  entire 
service  to  one  half-hour. 

'*  Last  evening,"  he  writes,  '*  we  reviewed  the  seventh 
and  catechised  upon  the  eighth  commandment.  The  con- 
sciences of  some  in  the  congregation  were  deeply  moved. 
In  the  exposition  of  the  commandments  to  simple  hearers 
we  find  it  highly  necessary  to  indicate  the  sins  forbidden 
therein,  and  the  virtues  enjoined  not  only  generally,  but 
they  must  be  clearly  specified  according  to  the  circum- 
stances of  the  hearers." 

Another  entry  runs :  **  One  of  those  who  was  recently 
comforted  by  his  confession  of  several  sins  against  the  sev- 
enth commandment  brought  me  some  money  to-day,  to 
restore  a  part  of  his  unrighteous  gain." 

When  the  catechism  was  finished,  then  the  daily  evening 
service  centered  around  a  course  of  simple  lectures  on  bib- 
lical history,  or  upon  the  Psalms.  At  a  later  period  the 
reports  of  the  Halle  missionaries  in  India  were  commented 
upon,  with  the  lessons  taught  by  their  w^ork.  He  showed 
how  the  divine  blessing  proved  the  legitimacy  of  their  call. 
He  dwelt  upon  the  cordial  unity  of  the  missionaries,  their 


1 66  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

unwearied  diligence,  their  wisdom  and  clear  judgment 
shown  in  so  many  difficult  cases,  their  remarkable  patience 
and  endurance  in  sorrow,  their  great  care  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  sacraments,  their  insatiable  thirst  for  the  sal- 
vation of  all  men  in  their  neighborhood,  their  condescension 
to  the  poorest  and  humblest,  their  admirably  clear,  full, 
and  direct  teaching  of  the  way  of  salvation  through  Christ, 
their  edifying  mode  of  reviewing  their  sermons  and  ques- 
tioning the  converts  upon  them,  their  excellent  schools,  their 
Christian  economy  in  the  use  of  missionary  funds,  their  dili- 
gent visitation  of  the  sick  and  dying,  their  Christian  inter- 
course, not  only  with  one  another,  but  with  the  brethren  at 
a  distance,  their  prayer,  and  study  of  God's  Word.^ 

When  the  first  infant  baptism  occurred  the  children  of 
the  parish  were  called  to  the  font  and  the  significance  of 
their  baptism  explained  to  them.  Public  sins  were  publicly 
reprimanded,  even  when  the  pastor  was  assured  of  the 
penitence  of  those  who  were  guilty.  Where  men  deceived 
him  with  their  professions  of  repentance  they  were  declared, 
in  the  daily  assembly,  to  be  corrupt  and  withered  branches, 
that  could  not  be  admitted  to  the  Holy  Supper,  or  any 
other  holy  act,  until  they  would  present  more  satisfactory 
evidence  of  a  holy  life.  The  wedding  of  a  couple  who  had 
sinned  against  each  other  was  celebrated  only  after  they 
had  made  public  confession  of  their  wrong  before  the  whole 
congregation,  had  heard  their  pastor's  severe  arraignment 
of  such  offenses  as  bringing  down  God's  just  wrath,  and 
the  prayers  of  the  whole  assembly  had  been  offered  for 
their  forgiveness.  A  married  couple  had  sinned.  The  sin 
was  announced  at  the  close  of  his  sermon,  for  the  following 
reasons : 

I.  That  the  hearers  may  know  that  God  is  a  holy  God,  and,  though  he 
overlooks  godless  ways  for  a  long  time,  yet  that  they  will  not  always  escape 

1  "  Urlspergerische  Nachrichten,"  August  6,  1750. 


CARE  FOR  INDIANS  AND  NEGROES.  l6j 

unknown  and  unpunished.  2.  That  godly  hearers  may  pray  to  God  for 
these  poor  persons.  3.  That  they  may  pray  also  for  us,  that  God  may 
grant  us  wisdom  sufficient  for  all  such  difficult  cases,  l 

The  religious  books  that  were  provided  for  the  people  at 
Ebenezer  are  known.  Prominent  among  them  were  the 
"  Passion  Sermons  "  and  hymns  of  Ziegenhagen,  in  many 
copies;  his  "Exposition  of  the  Lord's  Prayer";  over  one 
hundred  copies  of  the  Wernigerode  hymn-book  of  818 
hymns;  copies  for  every  house  of  the  hymn  '*  Jesus  sinners 
doth  receive,"  an  especial  favorite  of  Boltzius,  which  was 
frequently  used  in  the  daily  evening  service ;  and  the 
learned  controversial  works,  Walch's  "  Introduction  to 
Religious  Controversies,"  in  both  series,  viz.,  that  "  con- 
cerning the  controversies  within "  and  that  "  concerning 
those  without "  the  Lutheran  Church,  which  **  they  re- 
garded indispensable  in  a  neighborhood  abounding  in  sects 
of  all  kinds.  "2 

From  the  very  first  it  was  Boltzius'  great  desire  to  make 
an  effort  to  convert  to  Christianity  some  of  the  neighboring 
eight  thousand  Cherokees.  His  letters,  from  time  to  time, 
lament  how  the  pressure  of  other  occupations  has  prevented 
him  from  learning  their  language.  He  speaks  of  the 
friendly  disposition  and  superior  qualities  of  those  in  the 
neighborhood.  Gronau  was  surprised  to  find  an  English 
missionary  attempting  to  teach  some  Indian  children  from 
a  book  which  seemed  to  him,  from  a  short  distance,  to  be 
written  in  Greek  letters. ^ 

The  Salzburgers  were  determined  opponents  of  the  slave 
trade,  and  of  slavery  itself.  Boltzius  regarded  the  institu- 
tion as  introducing  a  heathenism  into  America  worse  than 
that  of  the  Indians,  and  as  a  great  injustice  to  white  laborers. 

1  "  Urlspergerische  Nachrichten,"  under  date  of  March  19,  1734;  January 
13,  18,  24,  February  4,  1736;  February  3  and  May  18,  1740. 

2  "Acta  Historica-Ecclesiastica,"  vol.  xx.,  p.  356. 

3  Ibid.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  1088. 


1 68  THE  LUTHERANS,  [Chap.  ix. 

Nevertheless,  in  the  absence  of  suitable  white  laborers  he 
found  it  expedient  to  purchase  slaves,  and  reconciled  him- 
self to  it  by  the  hope  that  he  would  be  able  to  bring  them 
from  heathenism  to  Christianity.  He  expresses  his  joy 
when  his  first  purchase  proved  to  be  **  a  Catholic  Christian." 
The  slaves  thus  purchased  had  complete  freedom  from  labor 
on  Sundays  and  other  church  festivals,  and  it  was  under- 
stood that  no  labor  would  be  required  which  would  prevent 
their  attendance  upon  any  week-day  service.  It  was  one 
of  his  plans  to  buy  a  large  number  of  young  children  and 
place  them  in  the  hands  of  thoroughly  trustworthy  Salz- 
burgers  for  religious  instruction.  He  baptized  a  number 
of  children.  One  of  the  pastors  visited  a  sick  slave-child 
whom  he  had  baptized,  and,  praying  by  the  bedside,  in- 
structed the  woman  to  whom  the  slave  belonged  "  to 
become  as  this  child."  ^  Boltzius  was  interested  in  a  night- 
school  for  negro  children  in  Savannah,  and,  while  criticising 
its  defective  methods,  he  expressed  his  conviction  that  the 
children  were  equal  to  Europeans  in  mental  ability.^ 

Faithful  to  the  example  of  Halle,  and  by  the  provision 
furnished  by  Dr.  Urlsperger,  an  Orphans'  Home  was 
erected  in  the  fall  of  1737,  and  occupied  the  succeeding 
January.  The  orphans  admitted  in  the  beginning  con- 
sisted of  three  boys  and  eight  girls.  In  this  building  the 
school  was  held,  not  only  for  the  village,  but  also  for 
German  children  from  other  places.  Until  a  suitable 
church  building  was  provided  it  was  the  place  where  the 
congregation  worshiped. 

1  n)id.,  vol.  XX,,  p.  363  sq.  2  Hid.,  p.  375. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  SALZBURGERS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBORS. 

The  Salzburgers  did  not  live  in  complete  isolation  ;  none 
can,  however  intent  they  may  be  to  concentrate  their  ener- 
gies entirely  upon  the  most  humble  sphere  to  which  God 
has  appointed  them.  On  February  5,  1736,  a  vessel  cast 
anchor  on  Tybee  Island  in  the  Savannah  River,  bringing 
with  it  a  reinforcement  of  Salzburgers  to  the  new  colony, 
a  Moravian  bishop,  David  Nitzschmann,  with  a  small  band 
of  adherents,  and  three  young  Englishmen,  two  of  whom 
were  destined  to  leave  names  in  the  history  of  English 
Protestantism  that  will  never  be  forgotten,  and  influences 
more  lasting  than  those  of  great  military  heroes.  One  was 
John  Wesley,  then  a  young  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England,  fresh  from  Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  with  convic- 
tions far  more  in  sympathy  with  the  Tractarianism  which  a 
century  later  proceeded  from  that  university  than  with  the 
Methodism  of  which  he  shortly  afterward  became  the  founder 
and  great  leader.  In  beginning  the  journal  of  his  voyage 
he  says,  in  the  second  sentence :  "  Our  end  in  leaving  our 
native  country  was  to  save  our  souls  and  live  wholly  to  the 
glory  of  God."  His  more  immediate  purpose  was  to  be- 
come a  missionary  to  the  Indians,  although  he  seems  then 
to  have  had  the  eternal  welfare  of  the  heathen  less  at  heart 
than  an  ascetic  course  of  self-denial  to  recommend  himself 
to  God's  favor.  During  the  voyage  he  confined  himself,  as 
an  act  of  self-denial,  to  vegetable  food.  The  doctrine  of 
salvation  entirely  by  faith  in  the  merits  of  Christ  was  yet 
to  be  revealed  to  him  in  all  the  fullness  of  its  consolation 

169 


I70  THE  LUTHERANS,  [Chap.  x. 

and  blessing.  No  one  can  question  his  earnestness  and 
sincerity  who  reads  tlie  story  of  the  struggles  through 
which  he  was  passing.  With  him  had  come  his  brother 
Charles,  afterward  to  be  the  great  hymn- writer  of  Meth- 
odism, who,  after  having  completed  his  theological  studies, 
shrunk,  like  Justus  Falckner,  from  the  responsibilities  of 
the  ministerial  office,  and  had  accepted  the  position  of  sec- 
retary to  General  Oglethorpe. 

With  the  Moravians,  who  were  going  to  reinforce  the 
colony  at  Savannah  founded  in  1735,  Wesley  cultivated 
from  the  moment  of  embarking  a  very  close  intimacy,  be- 
ginning at  once  to  study  German  in  order  that  he  might 
converse  with  them.  That  he  should  be  thrown  into 
closer  relations  with  them  than  with  the  Salzburgers  can  be 
readily  understood ;  for  the  Salzburgers  were  unlettered 
peasants,  and  Von  Reck  was  a  youthful  and  enthusiastic 
nobleman,  while  the  Moravians  had  among  them  men  who, 
however  humble,  v/ere  of  wide  experience  and  intelligence. 
David  Nitzschmann,  a  Moravian  bishop,  had  been  a  mis- 
sionary to  the  island  of  St.  Thomas.  As  he  was  sixty 
years  of  age,  his  years  rendered  him  an  object  of  venera- 
tion to  the  young  Oxford  graduate,  while  his  burning  zeal 
for  Christ  was  especially  attractive  to  one  who  was  still 
seeking  the  way  of  Hfe.  In  the  ship  was  also  David  Zeis- 
berger,  afterward  to  distinguish  himself  as  **  the  apostle  to 
the  Indians."  With  these  men  Wesley  could  discuss  not 
only  subjects  connected  with  practical  Christianity  and  the 
missionary  work  upon  which  he  was  about  to  enter,  but 
also  the  more  profound  questions  of  theology.  Moravian- 
ism  was  endeavoring  to  return  to  the  simplicity  of  apostolic 
Christianity ;  and  even  though  Wesley  understood,  in  a 
different  way,  what  that  meant,  this  was  also  his  aim,  as  is 
seen  even  before  he  left  the  ship,  when  he  baptized  a  child 
by  immersion,  as  he  writes,  '*  according  to  the  custom  of 


JOHN  WESLEY.  171 

the  first  church  and  the  rule  of  the  Church  of  England."^ 
But  when  he  speaks  of  the  Germans  on  board  the  vessel 
he  evidently  refers  to  the  entire  body  of  them,  including 
the  Salzburgers,  who  constituted  by  far  the  larger  number. 
As  they  approached  the  shores  of  America  they  expe- 
rienced a  succession  of  storms  of  extreme  violence.  Re- 
peatedly it  seemed  as  though  all  were  lost.  Mr.  Wesley 
himself  may  tell  the  story : 

At  seven  [January  23d]  I  went  to  the  Germans.  I  had  long  before  ob- 
served the  great  seriousness  of  their  behavior.  Of  their  humility  they  had 
given  a  continued  proof,  by  performing  those  servile  offices  for  the  other  pas- 
sengers which  none  of  the  English  would  undertake,  for  which  they  desired 
and  would  receive  no  pay,  saying,  "It  was  good  for  their  proud  hearts,"  or 
"  Their  loving  Saviour  had  done  more  for  them."  And  every  day  had  given 
them  occasion  of  showing  meekness,  which  no  injury  could  move.  If  they 
were  pushed,  struck,  or  thrown  down,  they  rose  again,  and  went  away ;  but 
no  complaint  was  found  in  their  mouth.  There  was  now  an  opportunity  of 
trying  whether  they  were  delivered  from  the  spirit  of  fear,  as  well  as  from 
that  of  pride,  anger,  and  revenge.  In  the  midst  of  the  psalm  wherewith  their 
service  began,  the  sea  broke  over,  split  the  mainsail  in  pieces,  covered  the 
ship,  and  poured  in  between  the  decks,  as  if  the  great  deep  had  already  swal- 
lowed us  up.  A  terrible  screaming  began  among  the  English.  The  Ger- 
mans calmly  sang  on.  I  asked  one  of  them  afterward,  "  Were  you  not 
afraid?"  He  answered,  "I  thank  God,  no."  I  asked,  "But  were  not 
your  women  and  children  afraid?"  He  replied  mildly,  "No;  our  women 
and  children  are  not  afraid  to  die." 

From  them  I  went  to  their  crying,  trembling  neighbors,  and  pointed  out 
to  them  the  difference,  in  the  hour  of  trial,  between  him  that  feareth  God  and 
him  that  feareth  him  not.  At  twelve  the  wind  fell.  This  was  the  most 
glorious  day  which  I  had  hitherto  seen. 

The  accounts  of  this  tempestuous  voyage  and  the  conduct 
of  the  Salzburgers  given  by  Baron  von  Reck  have  been 
generally  overlooked.  He  dwells  at  great  length  on  De- 
cember 20th,  upon  a  storm  which  the  published  selections 
from  Wesley's  journal  do  not  mention.  He  speaks  of  their 
great  danger,  and  then  the  fervor  of  joy  in  which,  before 
all  the  passengers   in  the   cabin,  the   Salzburgers,  to  the 

1  "Journal,"  vol.  i.,  p.  129. 


172  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  x. 

great  astonishment  of  the  Englishmen  present,  offered  their 
thanksgiving  for  deUverance.      He  says  : 

The  fear  and  desire  to  please  men  all  vanished  in  our  need,  and  I  learned 
to  know  how  good  and  necessary  it  is  to  be  practiced  in  faith  and  prayer  be- 
fore the  need  arises,  so  that  when  it  bursts  upon  us  we  can  say  with  truth 
and  confidence,  "  God,  thou  art  my  God.  No  need,  no  trouble,  not  even 
death  itself,  can  harm  me ;  for  I  have  a  sure  and  certain  refuge  in  the  wounds 
of  my  Saviour ;  his  name  is  my  firm  tower,  to  which  I  run,  and  in  which  I 
am  securely  protected." 

The  Englishmen  were  astonished  no  less  at  our  free  prayer,  for  we  saw  no 
men  around  and  beside  us,  as  long  as  we  were  occupied  with  the  praise  of 
God.  The  dear  Salzburgers  praised  the  Lord  for  his  deliverance,  singing  the 
hymn  "  Lobe  den  Herrn,  den  machtigen  Konig  der  Erden,"  and  then  with 
great  joy  we  went  to  rest.^ 

We  can  appreciate  the  astonishment  of  the  founder  of 
a  communion  known  for  the  stress  it  places  upon  **  free 
prayer"  at  this  illustration  of  its  power  and  eloquence, 
when  it  was  uttered,  as  the  spontaneous  expression  of  the 
emotions  of  these  Lutheran  Christians,  where  no  printed 
formula,  which  they  none  the  less  prized,  in  its  proper  place, 
would  have  suited.  When  the  later  storms  which  he  de- 
scribes arose,  the  incidents  of  this  earlier  storm  were  un- 
doubtedly recalled.  Of  those  that  burst  on  them  near  the 
Georgia  coast  the  baron  writes : 

We  thought  in  this  peril  of  the  examples  of  old,  how  the  Lord  answers  the 
prayers  of  the  distressed.  We  recalled  his  tender  mercy  that  had  never  for- 
saken us  in  past  need.  We  had  daily  meetings  for  edification ;  but  to-day 
we  were  driven  together  by  the  storm.  We  pondered  upon  the  words,  "  Call 
upon  me  in  the  day  of  trouble."  We  drew  near  the  throne  of  grace  with 
tears  and  supplications  ;  and  they  seemed  to  be  borne  by  our  Advocate  before 
the  Father  who,  for  his  dear  Son's  sake,  could  refuse  no  petition.  After  the 
evening  service  \^Betshmde\  I  retired  to  my  dark  cabin  and  went  to  bed,  but 
could  not  sleep  because  of  my  great  distress  concerning  my  sins  and  an  evil 
conscience  and  unbelief.  Every  stroke  of  the  waves  upon  the  ship  was  a 
heavier  stroke  upon  my  heart ;  and  I  had  nothing  to  oppose  to  the  force  of 
the  waves  and  the  fear  of  death  but  the  feeble  sighing  and  hope  of  my  heart 
for  grace,  for  Christ's  sake.  2 

1  "  Urlspergerische  Nachrichten,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  826. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  832. 


CHARLES   WESLEY.  I  73 

The  baron  evidently  had  not  experienced  the  complete 
composure  of  the  humble  peasants  who  were  in  his  care. 
It  was  the  echo  of  the  hymns  which  had  cheered  them  in 
their  weary  march  from  their  fatherland,  and  had  comforted 
them  as  they  remembered  their  lost  children  and  homes, 
that  was  heard  above  the  roar  of  the  winds  and  the  rush 
of  the  waters. 

These  storms  are  often  referred  to  as  important  inci- 
dents in  the  life  of  John  Wesley,  but  it  seems  to  be  almost 
overlooked  that  Charles  Wesley  was  also  on  board.  It  was 
impossible  for  him  to  have  forgotten,  three  years  later,  the 
scene  in  the  cabin,  with  the  prayers  that  astonished  the 
Englishmen,  whose  burden  was,  **  I  have  a  sure  and  certain 
refuge  in  the  wounds  of  my  Saviour"  ;  or  that  other  scene 
which  his  brother  describes,  where,  when  all  seemed  lost, 
the  hymns  of  the  devout  worshipers  at  their  evening  service 
were  uninterrupted  by  the  rending  of  sails  and  the  break- 
ing of  masts.  The  whole  thought  of  those  anxious  hours 
has  been  reproduced  in  Charles  Wesley's  hymn,  sung 
wherever  the  English  language  is  used : 

Jesus,  Lover  of  my  soul, 

Let'me  to  thy  bosom  fly  ; 
While  the  nearer  waters  roll, 

While  the  tempest  still  is  high! 
Hide  me,  oh,  my  Saviour,  hide, 

Till  the  storm  of  life  is  past ; 
Safe  into  the  haven  guide ; 

Oh,  receive  my  soul  at  last. 

A  true  Salzburger  hymn,  translated  into  the  experience 
of  the  young  secretary  of  Oglethorpe,  whose  heart  was 
agitated  by  a  tempest  of  which  that  around  him  had  been 
the  image. 

During  their  brief  stay  in  Georgia  we  have  accounts  of 
but  one  visit  to  the  Salzburgers.  John  Wesley  writes,  in 
August,  1737,  shortly  before  leaving  for  England: 


174  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  x. 

In  the  evening  we  came  to  New  Ebenezer,  where  the  poor  Salzburgers  are 
settled.  The  industry  of  this  people  is  quite  surprising.  Their  sixty  huts 
are  neatly  and  regularly  built,  and  all  the  little  spots  of  ground  between  them 
improved  to  the  best  advantage.  One  side  of  the  town  is  a  field  of  Indian 
corn  ;  on  the  other  are  the  plantations  of  several  private  persons  ;  all  which 
together  one  would  hardly  think  it  possible  for  a  handful  of  people  to  have 
done  in  one  year.l 

The  succeeding  December  Wesley  returned  to  England. 
Twelve  years  afterward  a  letter  from  Pastor  Boltzius  to 
Wesley,  which  the  latter  translated  for  permanent  record, 
shows  that  their  relations  were  more  intimate  than  can  now 
be  traced  in  other  portions  of  the  selections  from  Wesley's 
journals  that  have  been  published.  Wesley  says  (Septem- 
ber 29,  I  749) : 

About  this  time  I  was  refreshed  with  a  friendly  letter  from  an  excellent 
man,  whom  I  had  not  heard  from  for  several  years ;  part  of  it  was  as  follows  : 

"Ebenezer  in  Georgia,  July  25,  1749. 

"  Rev.  and  Dear  Sir  :  The  sincere  love  to  your  worthy  person  and  faith- 
ful performance  of  your  holy  office,  which  the  Lord  kindled  in  my  heart  dur- 
ing your  presence  at  Savannah,  hath  not  been  abated,  but  rather  increased, 
since  the  providence  of  God  called  you  from  us,  and  showed  you  another  field 
for  the  labor  of  your  ministry. 

"  You  are  pleased  in  your  last  letter  to  Mr.  Brown,  of  Savannah,  to  re- 
member Ebenezer  kindly,  and  desired  to  know  what  is  the  present  state  of 
the  settlement.  Though  we  have  felt  greatly  the  inconveniencies  of  the  long 
war,  yet  there  are  great  alterations  for  the  better  in  our  town  and  plantations 
since  you  were  pleased  to  visit  us.  We  have  two  large  houses  for  public 
worship  :  one  in  town,  the  other  in  the  middle  of  our  plantations  ;  two  schools, 
in  the  same  places  ;  two  corn-mills,  one  pounding-mill  for  rice,  and  one  saw- 
mill. In  the  first  quantity  of  boards  we  sawed  we  were  cheated  by  an  im- 
postor, who  undertook  to  ship  them  off  to  the  West  Indies.  But  we  did  not 
lose  our  courage,  though  we  met  with  almost  insuperable  difficulties,  till  our 
circumstances  were  mended  by  the  hand  of  the  Almighty.  We  are  still  in 
the  favor  of  the  honorable  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge ;  as 
also  of  many  good  Christians  in  Germany,  who  love  us,  pray  fervently  for 
us,  and  contribute  all  in  their  power  to  promote  our  spiritual  and  temporal 
prosperity. 

"  Through  very  hard  labor  several  of  our  people  have  left  us,  and  are  de- 

1  "  Journal,"  p.  151. 


WHITEFIELD.  I  75 

parted  to  a  better  country  in  heaven ;  and  the  rest  are  weak  and  feeljlc  in 
body,  and  not  able  to  hold  out  long,  unless  relief  is  sent  them  by  an  embark- 
ation of  faithful  servants  from  Germany.  Besides  widows  and  orphans,  we 
have  several  that  want  assistance  toward  their  maintenance ;  and  this  our 
good  God  hath  sent  us  heretofore  from  Europe. 

"After  my  dear  fellow-laborer,  Mr.  Gronaw,  died  in  peace  above  three 
years  ago,  the  Lord  was  pleased  to  send  me  another,  who  likewise  exactly 
follows  the  footsteps  of  his  Saviour,  to  my  great  comfort  and  the  great  bene- 
fit of  our  congregation.  The  Lord  hath  graciously  joined  us  in  mutual  love 
and  harmony  in  our  congregations  ;  and  hath  not  permitted  the  Herrnhut- 
ers  (falsely  called  Moravians),  nor  other  false  teachers,  to  creep  in  among  us. 
We  are  hated  by  wicked  people,  which  prevents  their  settling  among  us  ; 
though  we  love  them  sincerely,  and  would  have  as  many  settle  among  us  as 
would  keep  such  orders  as  Christianity  and  the  laws  of  England  require  them 
to  do.  This  is  all  I  thought  it  necessary  to  acquaint  you  with  for  the  pres- 
ent ;  being,  with  due  regard  and  cordial  wishes  for  your  prosperity  in  soul 
and  body,  reverend  and  dear  sir, 

"  Yours  most  affectionately, 

"John  Martin  Bolzius." 

Upon  this  Mr.  Wesley  comments : 

What  a  truly  Christian  piety  and  simplicity  breathe  in  these  lines !  And 
yet  this  very  man,  when  I  was  at  Savannah,  did  I  refuse  to  admit  to  the 
Lord's  table,  because  he  was  not  baptized ;  that  is,  not  baptized  by  a  minis- 
ter who  had  been  episcopally  ordained.  Can  any  one  carry  high-church  zeal 
higher  than  this?     And  how  well  have  I  been  beaten  with  mine  own  staff  !i 

Wesley's  presence  in  America  had  enkindled  in  his  great 
associate,  George  Whitefield,  the  earnest  desire  to  follow 
him.  They  were  not  destined  to  be  on  this  continent 
together.  The  day  before  Wesley  reached  England 
Whitefield  left  it,  landing  in  Georgia  May  17,  1738.     The 

1  "Journal,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  153  sq.  The  account  of  the  colony  of  Georgia, 
published  1741  in  Charleston,  cited  p.  72,  says  of  Wesley's  extravagances 
which  he  here  laments :  "  Under  an  affected  strict  adherence  to  the  Church 
of  England  he  most  unmercifully  damned  all  dissenters  of  whatever  denom- 
ination, who  were  never  admitted  to  communicate  with  him  until  they  first 
gave  up  their  faith  and  principles  entirely  to  his  molding  and  direction,  and 
in  confirmation  thereof  declared  their  belief  of  the  invalidity  of  their  former 
baptism,  and  then  to  receive  a  new  one  from  him.  .  .  .  Persons  suspected 
to  be  Roman  Catholics  were  received  and  caressed  by  him  as  his  first-rate 
saints." 


176  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  x. 

prospect  there  seemed  to  him  most  discouraging.  "  The 
settlers  were  chiefly  broken  and  decayed  tradesmen  from 
London  and  other  parts  of  England."  The  Salzburgers 
he  praised  as  "  by  far  the  most  industrious  of  the  whole." 
He  speaks  of  the  intimacy  which  he  formed  with  the  worthy 
pastors  of  Ebenezer,^  and  was  pleased  with  the  Orphan 
House,  which  only  increased  the  desire  he  had  formed,  on 
reading  an  account  of  the  Francke  institutions  at  Halle,  to 
found  a  similar  home  near  Savannah.2  The  purpose  formed 
was  before  long  faithfully  executed  in  his  Bethesda.  The 
words  of  Whitefield  are : 

They  are  blest  with  two  such  pious  ministers  as  I  have  not  often  seen. 
They  have  no  courts  of  judicature,  but  all  little  differences  are  immediately 
and  implicitly  decided  by  their  ministers,  whom  they  look  upon  and  love  as 
their  fathers.  They  have  likewise  an  Orphan  House,  in  which  are  seventeen 
children  and  one  widow,  and  I  was  much  delighted  to  see  the  regularity  with 
which  it  was  managed.  3 

Returning  to  England  after  a  stay  of  sixteen  weeks, 
Whitefield,  although  having  enough  on  his  hands  in  se- 
curing funds  for  his  Orphan  House,  preached  in  several 
churches  to  collect  also  "  for  erecting  a  church  for  the 
poor  Salzburgers."'*  When  a  church  was  at  last  erected, 
in  1 741,  he  presented  it  with  a  bell.  He  furnished  the 
colony  with  a  much  needed  pair  of  horses,  turning-lathes, 
and  other  thoughtful  gifts.  His  contributions  to  the  Eben- 
ezer  Orphan  House  were  many  and  valuable. 

1  "  Memoirs  of  Rev.  George  Whitefield,"  by  John  Gillies,  D.D.  (Middle- 
town,  1836),  p.  32. 

2  Bishop  Hurst  says  :  "  It  was  this  Orphan  House  which  so  pleased  White- 
field  when  he  visited  the  place  that  he  made  it  the  model  for  his  celebrated 
orphanage  at  Bethesda,  for  which  he  made  collections  along  the  Atlantic  coast, 
and  toward  which  the  quiet  Benjamin  Franklin  one  day  emptied  his  pockets 
of  their  contents  of  copper,  silver,  and  gold." — "  Harper's  Magazine,"  vol. 
Ixxxv.,  p.  394. 

3  Quoted  in  Southey's  "  Wesley,"  vol.  i.,  p.  99. 

4  Gillies'  "  Memoirs  of  Whitefield,"  p.  37. 


CHARACTER    OF  BOLTZIUS.  I  77 

In  the  published  letters  of  Whitefield  there  are  several 
interesting  allusions.  Under  date  of  April  10,  1740,  he 
writes : 

Some  of  the  Germans'  in  America  are  holy  souls,  and  deserve  the  character 
they  bear.  They  keep  up  a  close  walk  with  God,  and  are  remarkable  for  their 
sweetness  and  simplicity  of  behavior.  They  talk  little ;  they  think  much. 
Most  of  them,  I  believe,  are  Lutherans. l 

On  June  25th  he  writes: 

Went  on  Monday  to  Ebenezer,  and  returned  to  Savannah  this  evening. 
Surely  there  is  a  difference,  even  in  this  life,  between  those  who  serve  God 
and  those  who  serve  him  not.  All  other  places  of  the  colony  seem  to  be  like 
Egypt,  where  was  darkness,  but  Ebenezer  like  the  land  of  Goshen,  wherein 
was  great  light.  I  walked  near  four  miles  in  almost  one  continued  field, 
covered  with  a  most  plentiful  crop  of  corn,  pease,  potatoes,  etc.,  all  the  prod- 
uct of  a  few  months'  labor.  But  God  gives  the  laborers  a  peculiar  blessing. 
They  are  linanimous,  and  the  strong  help  the  weak.  I  had  sweet  communi- 
cation with  their  ministers. 2 

The  early  Lutherans  of  Georgia  were  much  more  isolated 
from  those  of  the  same  faith  in  this  country  than  any  other 
Lutheran  colony.  Boltzius  is  said  to  have  been  averse  to 
any  intimate  relations  with  Berkenmeyer,  so  strong  was 
the  feeling  aroused  by  the  Pietistic  controversy  in  Ger- 
many. At  a  great  distance  Boltzius  could  not  understand 
the  character  of  Van  Dieren,  as  Muhlenberg  did  later,  and 
as  the  irregular  preacher  had  some  sort  of  indorsement 
from  Bohme  of  London,  a  Halle  alumnus  and  the  intimate 
friend  of  Urlsperger,  he  condemned  Berkenmeyer's  course. 
The  scattered  and  uncared-for  Lutherans  of  Pennsylvania 
repeatedly  appealed  to  Boltzius  for  his  aid  and  advice,  but 
complained  that  their  letters  were  not  answered.  The 
Halle  authorities  urged  that  he  should  endeavor  to  yield 
to  their  entreaties ;  but  in  vain.^  Finally,  when  Muhlen- 
berg arrived,  he  was  at  last  induced  to  start  for  Pennsyl- 

1  Whitefield's  "  Letters,"  vol.  i.,  p.   166. 

2  Tyerman's  "  Life  of  Whitefield,"  vol.  i.,  p.  392. 

3  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  new  ed.,  pp.  58,  62,  65. 


178  THE  LUTHERANS.  [CHAr.  x. 

vania,  in  order,  with  his  experience,  to  aid  in  laying  the 
foundations  for  the  church  there ;  but  pecuHar  difficulties 
at  Ebenezer  weighed  on  him  so  heavily  that,  after  reach- 
ing Charleston,  he  returned  home.  Contributions  were 
afterward  sent  both  from  Savannah  and  Ebenezer  to  aid 
Muhlenberg  in  building  churches. 1  His  mind  seemed  to 
be  intent  on  two  things.  One  was  the  development  of  all 
the  interests  of  Ebenezer,  in  the  furtherance  of  which  he 
never  spared  himself,  day  or  night ;  and  the  other  was  the 
cultivation  of  his  own  spiritual  life  by  devout  meditation, 
and  by  the  writing  of  voluminous  journals  entering  into  the 
fullest  details  of  his  own  experience  and  that  of  his  people. 
He  is  always  analyzing  the  motives  and  conduct  of  those 
for  whose  care  he  has  the  responsibility.  He  is  a  teacher 
and  preacher,  even  in  the  daily  entries  in  his  diaries.  He 
suggests  nothing,  but  elaborates  everything.  He  knows 
not  how  to  condense ;  he  almost  seems,  in  his  voluminous 
reports,  to  aim  at — he  certainly  delights  in — expanding. 
We  feel  constantly  the  presence  of  a  holy  personality,  but 
of  one  absolutely  deficient  in  that  breadth  of  view  which 
could  look  forward  to  any  remote  future  for  the  church,  or 
could  send  more  than  his  prayers  and  his  assurances  of 
sympathy  to  those  living  at  any  great  distance.  There  are 
traces  also  of  a  regard  for  dreams,  etc.,  that  show  some 
symptoms  of  a  mysticism  which  was  tending  toward  enthu- 
siasm, and  weakened  somewhat  the  force  of  his  otherwise 
sound  teaching  and  faithful  practice. 

Two  of  the  brightest  young  men  in  the  colony,  brothers, 
he  carefully  instructed  in  the  branches  preparatory  for  a 
higher  course  at  Halle.  The  elder,  who  had  made  most 
gratifying  progress  in  both  Latin  and  Greek,  sickened  and 
died ;  the  other  brother  probably  never  continued  his 
studies.      Boltzius  sent  his  own  son  to  Halle. 

1  "Acta  Historica-Ecclesiastica,"  vol.  ix.,  p.  832. 


LEMKE.  1 79 

The  field  was  gradually  extending,  as  outlying  districts 
were  taken  possession  of  by  the  Salzburgers  and  brought 
under  cultivation.  This  necessitated  more  churches,  so 
that  by  the  middle  of  the  century  St.  Matthew's  parish,  as 
it  was  called,  included  four  churches — Jerusalem,  Zion, 
Bethany,  and  Goshen.  This,  with  the  care  of  Savannah, 
would,  without  the  conduct  of  the  temporal  affairs  of  the 
colony,  have  been  sufficient  for  the  pastoral  work  of  two 
men  who  gave  the  attention  to  the  individuals  of  their 
charge  that  these  pastors  did. 

In  1 744  Gronau  took  a  cold  in  filling  the  Savannah  ap- 
pointment, from  which  he  never  recovered.  He  lingered 
for  one  year ;  and  the  details  of  his  Christian  resignation 
and  deep  aflfection  for  his  people  have  been  recorded  at 
length  by  Boltzius.  Bishop  Stevens  has  well  condensed 
them  in  the  beautiful  words  :^  "Filled  with  the  love  of 
souls,  he  made  his  bed.  a  pulpit,  whence  he  taught  the 
people ;  and  his  sickness,  borne  so  patiently,  and  gloried 
in  so  triumphantly,  was  a  more  powerful  sermon  than  ever 
fell  from  his  lips  in  the  days  of  his  strength  and  service." 
When  the  last  hour  came,  he  asked  a  parishioner  to  support 
his  weak  arms,  and,  with  them  extended,  and  the  words, 
*'  Even  so,  come.  Lord  Jesus — Amen,"  upon  his  lips,  he 
entered  into  rest. 

On  the  recommendation  of  Dr.  J.  A.  Francke  and  Pastor 
J.  A.  Maier  of  Halle,  Dr.  Urlsperger  sent  a  formal  call  to 
Hermann  Henry  Lemke  to  become  successor  to  Gronau. 
Lemke  was  a  student  at  Halle,  and  also  a  teacher  in  the 
Orphan  House.  Dr.  Urlsperger  signed  the  call  as  ''  Senior 
of  the  English  Ministerium  and  pastor  at  St.  Anna's  in- 
stead, and  in  the  name  of  the  venerable  English  Society  for 
Propagating  Christian  Knowledge."  For  nineteen  years 
Lemke  labored  alongside  of  Boltzius  as  his  associate,  hav- 

1  "  History  of  Georgia,"  vol.  i.,  p.  363. 


l8o  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  x. 

ing  identified  himself  closely  with  the  colony  and  its  pre- 
vious religious  development  and  strengthened  the  bonds 
connecting  him  with  the  senior  pastor,  by  marrying  Gro- 
nau's  widow,  Boltzius'  sister-in-law.  For  a  number  of 
years  after  the  death  of  Boltzius  he  held  his  place  in  the 
congregations  and  community. 

Boltzius  was  not  well  pleased  when,  in  1752,  the  thought- 
ful consideration  of  Urlsperger  provided  a  third  pastor  in 
the  person  of  Christian  Rabenhorst,  in  order  to  lighten  the 
burdens  of  his  advancing  years.  Not  only  was  the  pastor 
provided,  but  a  fund  was  raised,  the  interest  of  which 
availed  for  his  support.  The  ordination  of  Rabenhorst  for 
his  work  in  America,  July  28,  1752,  was  evidently  a  great 
event  in  St.  Anna's  Church,  Augsburg.  The  entire  or- 
dination service,  with  the  biography  of  the  candidate  and 
the  ordination  sermon,  was  published  as  a  separate  pam- 
phlet, and  included  also  in  the  "  Americanisches  Acker- 
werk  Gottes,"  Augsburg,  1760.1  We  are  there  told  that, 
at  birth,  Rabenhorst  was  so  feeble  that  there  was  little 
prospect  of  his  surviving  long;  but  that  as  his  father's 
prayer,  who  vowed  that  should  he  live  he  should  be  de- 
voted to  the  ministry,  was  answered,  he  had  cheerfully 
prepared  himself  for  the  work.  The  questions  addressed 
the  candidate  were  unusually  long.  The  confessional  test 
was  as  follows : 

Will  you  esteem  the  word  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  together  with 
its  seals,  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  higher  than  all  the  treasures  of  the 
Old  and  the  New  World,  and,  with  God's  assistance  and  blessing,  will  you 
always  administer  them  in  your  office,  until  your  end,  only  according  to  the 
example  of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles,  and  according  to  the  model  of  the 
wholesome  doctrine  of  our  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  founded  thereon, 
and  expressed  and  explained  in  our  symbolical  books? 

But  the  confidence  of  the  senior  pastor  was  soon  gained 
when  the  young  man  threw  himself  into  the  work  with 
1  Pages  163-174. 


RABENHORST.  l8l 

such  zeal  that  he  had  to  be  restrained  by  his  brethren  for 
the  fear  that  he  would  break  down.  With  Rabenhorst 
there  was  an  accession  to  the  colony  of  a  number  of  Wiir- 
temberg-ers. 

On  November  i,  1753,  the  two  younger  pastors  with  a 
number  of  the  parishioners  called  upon  Boltzius  to  con- 
gratulate him  on  the  completion  of  his  twenty  years'  ser- 
vice at  Ebenezer.  The  first  half  of  the  hymn  '*  Oh  that  I 
had  a  thousand  tongues  "  was  sung,  the  one  hundred  and 
third  Psalm  was  read,  and  the  object  of  the  meeting  was 
stated.  Then  all  knelt,  while  first  Mr.  Lemke  and  then 
Mr.  Rabenhorst,  and  finally  Mr.  Boltzius,  offeied  prayer. 
The  latter  part  of  the  hymn  was  sung,  and  the  service 
closed  with  the  benediction  by  the  pastor  who  had  re- 
ceived the  congratulations. 

The  last  years  of  Boltzius  were  years  of  weakness.  The 
prospect  of  death  was  long  before  him,  as  his  disease 
gradually  progressed.  He  wrote  a  farewell  letter  to  Urls- 
perger :  **  I  am  hastening  toward  my  home.  He  who  sees 
his  wedding-day  is  not  concerned  about  trifles."  He 
closed  his  last  letter  to  Ziegenhagen  with  the  words :  "  I 
know  in  whom  I  have  believed,  and  I  am  sure  there  is 
laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of  righteousness."  When  the  end 
approached  and  his  colleague  Lemke  comforted  him  with 
the  words  of  the  Saviour  in  John  xvii.  24,  Boltzius  re- 
peated, after  he  had  ceased,  the  clause,  **  That  they  may 
behold  my  glory."  The  next  day,  November  15,  1765, 
he  was  with  the  Lord,  whom  he  so  long  had  served. 

Reviewing  the  history  of  the  first  period  of  the  churches 
of  the  Salzburgers,  we  must  certainly  be  convinced  of  the 
great  efficiency  as  well  as  fidelity  with  which  they  were 
administered.  The  executive  ability  of  Boltzius  was  of 
the  highest  order.  He  was  most  conscientious  in  the  ob- 
servance of  a  full  church  order.     This  order  should  be  per- 


1 82  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  x. 

manently  preserved  as  the  first  German  American  Church 
order  which  we  have.  It  was  prepared  by  Urlsperger, 
Ziegenhagen,  and  Francke,  and  shows,  therefore,  the  type 
of  constitution  which  they  regarded  best  adapted  for  the 
success  of  a  Lutheran  congregation  in  America,  nine  years 
before  the  arrival  of  Muhlenberg.      It  begins : 

In  the  Name  of  God :  The  fundamental  constitution,  articles,  and  rules, 
upon  which  a  German  Evangelical  Lutheran  congregation  was  formally  estab- 
lished, upon  the  basis  of  the  Holy  Bible,  our  Augsburg  Confession  (and  the 
other  symbolical  books),  since  the  year  1 733,  in  and  about  Ebenezer,  in  his 
Great  Britannic  Majesty's  province  of  Georgia;  and  which  were  unanimously 
approved,  confirmed,  and  unalterably  determined  upon,  under  hand  and  seal, 
by  the  reverend  founders,  viz.,  Messrs.  Samuel  Urlsperger,  Frederick  Michael 
Ziegenhagen,  Gotthelf  Augustus  Francke,  most  worthy  members  of  the  ven- 
erable society  in  England,  instituted  for  the  promotion  of  the  knowledge  of 
Christ ;  together  with  the  first  ministers,  elders,  deacons,  and  regular  church 
members,  his  Great  Britannic  Protestant  Majesty's  faithful  subjects. 

The  constitution  then  proceeds  to  a  consideration  of  the 
origin  and  importance  of  elders  and  deacons,  declares  *'  our 
congregation  does  not  properly  belong  to  the  English 
Church,"  and  speaks  of  the  necessity  of  some  provision 
for  elders  and  deacons,  like  that  found  in  *'  the  Evangel- 
ical Lutheran  Church  in  London,"  and  urges  members  of 
the  congregation  to  aid  these  officers  by  their  cheerful 
contributions.  It  then  proceeds  to  a  specification  of  the 
duties  of  these  church  officers,  as  follows : 

Touching  the  office  and  duties  of  the  church  elder,  in  regard  to  the  minis- 
ters in  the  churches,  the  teachers  in  the  schools,  the  whole  congregation,  and 
the  money  intrusted  to  them,  it  shall  be  indicated  in  the  words  of  the  printed 
London  German  Church  Discipline,  given  to  us,  altered,  however,  in  several 
instances,  to  accord  with  our  peculiar  circumstances. 

In  order  that  the  close  dependence  of  our  German- 
American  congregational  constitutions  of  the  eighteenth 
century  upon  the  London  Lutheran  congregational  con- 
stitutions of  an  earlier  date,  and  through  them  upon  the 


THE   GEORGIA    CHURCH  CONSTITUTION. 


■83 


Amsterdam  Lutheran  constitutions,  may  be  seen,  we  give 
these  provisions  in  parallel  columns : 


A  }Hste7-dam  ( 1 597).  1 

I.  They  shall  employ  the 
utmost  diligence  that  God's 
Word  shall  be  declared  unto 
the  Christians  in  our  congre- 
gations properly  and  purely, 
by  pious  teachers  and  minis- 
ters, that  the  holy  sacraments 
be  administered  according  to 
the  command  and  institution 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
that  every  point  in  this  revised 
Church  Order  be  well"  main- 
tained, also  that  the  pure  doc- 
trine be  preserved  and  trans- 
mitted to  our  posterity.  And 
in  order  that  this  object  may 
be  attained,  some  of  them 
shall  always  be  present  at 
every  sermon,  and  listen  to  it. 


Savoy,  London  (1694). 

I.  They  shall  employ  the 
utmost  diligence  that  the 
Word  of  God  shall  be  declared 
to  the  Christians  of  our  con- 
gregation, in  its  purity  and 
without  admixture,  by  pious 
teachers  and  ministers,  that 
the  holy  sacraments  be  admin- 
istered according  to  the  com- 
mand and  institution  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  that 
every  point  in  this  revised 
Church  Order  be  well  main- 
tained, also  that  the  pure  doc- 
trine be  preserved  and  trans- 
mitted to  our  posterity.  And 
in  order  that  this  object  may 
be  attained,  some  of  them,  in 
case  all  cannot  appear,  shall 
be  present  at  every  sermon, 
and  listen  to  it. 


Georgia  (i733).2 

I.  They  shall  employ  the 
utmost  diligence  that  the 
Word  of  God  shall  be  declared 
to  the  Christians  of  our  con- 
gregation, in  its  purity  and 
without  admi.xture,  by  pious 
teachers  and  ministers  ;  that 
the  holy  sacraments  enjoined 
and  instituted  by  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  be  administered, 
and  that  the  pure  doctrine 
be  preserved  and  transmitted 
to  our  posterity.  And  in  order 
that  this  object  may  be  at- 
tained, some  of  them,  at  least, 
in  case  all  cannot,  shall  be 
present  when  the  Word  is 
preached. 


The  nine  sections  of  the  Georgia  correspond  to  the  nine 
of  the  Savoy  constitution.  The  changes  are  unimportant, 
e.g.,  as  the  salary  of  the  pastors  was  provided  from  outside 
sources,  the  congregation  had  to  look  only  to  the  payment 
of  such  schoolteachers  as  they  might  have ;  it  was  more 
convenient  for  the  Georgia  congregation  to  pay  semi- 
annually instead  of  quarterly ;  the  collection-plates  used 
in  the  Amsterdam  congregation  at  festival  days,  Sunday 
and  week-day  services,  were  used  in  the  London  church 
only  on  festival  days  and  Sundays,  while  among  the  Salz- 
burgers  it  was  the  custom  to  have  such  collection  only  on 
the  Sundays  on  which  the  communion  was  administered. 

Before  leaving  Georgia  notice  should  also  be  taken  of 
a  small  colony  that  was  established  at  Frederica,  on  St. 
Simon's  Island,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  south 

1  We  quote  from  Benthem's  German  translation  of  Dutch  edition  of  1682. 

2  English  translation  in  Strobel,  p.  97. 


1 84  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  x. 

of  Savannah.  In  October,  1736,  John  Wesley  found  Ger- 
mans there  who  could  not  understand  English,  and  ar- 
ranged for  them  a  short  service  daily  at  noon.  They  sang 
a  German  hymn,  and  Wesley  read  and  explained  a  chap- 
ter to  them  in  German,  as  well  as  he  could.  They  seem 
to  have  had  little  further  attention  until  after  the  repulse 
of  the  Spanish  invasion  in  1742,  when  Oglethorpe  became 
interested  in  them  and  provided  the  salary  for  a  pastor. 
Rev.  John  Ulrich  Driessler  was  sent  thither  through  Urls- 
perger  and  Francke  in  i  744,  and  gathered  a  congregation 
of  sixty-three  members;  but  he  died  in  1746.1  His  widow 
two  years  later  reported  that  there  was  no  service  of  any 
kind,  English  or  German,  held  there,  and  the  Germans 
were  removing.^  Afterward  the  remnants  were  gathered 
into  a  German  Reformed  congregation  of  a  Swiss  pastor, 
Rev.  Ziibli. 

Lutheran  congregations  were  also  founded  before  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  at  Orangeburg,  and  in 
Lexington  County,  S.  C. 

Another  isolated  parish  had  been  established  in  what 
was  then  Spottsylvania  ^  County,  Va.,  composed  partly  of 
twelve  families  of  Palatinates  who  had  escaped  from  the 
massacre  in  North  Carolina,  and  partly  of  a  colony  of  Al- 
satians and  Palatinates  who  had  started  for  Pennsylvania, 
but  who,  in  171  7,  after  various  hardships  on  the  voyage, 
in  which  many  of  their  companions  died,  were  purchased 
by  Governor  Spottwood,  and  sent  by  him  to  his  lands  in 
the  same  locality,  on  the  upper  Rappahannock,  *'  twelve 
[German]  miles  from  the  sea."     Here  the  Rev.  G.  Henkel, 

1  "Acta  Historica-Ecclesiastica,"  vol.  xii.,  p.  240. 

2  Ibid.,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  529. 

3  In  1734  Orange  was  cut  off  of  Spottsylvania;  in  1748  Culpepper  v^^as 
formed  from  Orange;  and  in  1792  Madison  from  Culpepper.  The  church  is 
now  in  Madison  County. 


STOEVER   IN   VIRGINIA.  1 85 

an  ancestor  of  the  prominent  family  of  that  name,  is  said 
to  have  ministered  to  them  for  a  short  time.  This  was 
probably  before  the  second  band  had  arrived ;  as  for  six- 
teen years  they  had  been  without  a  pastor,  when  they 
were  at  length  suppHed  by  John  Caspar  Stoever,  Sr.,  born 
in  Frankenberg,  Hesse,  who  came  to  America  in  1727  with 
his  younger  relative  of  the  same  name.  The  latter  was  a 
missionary  preacher  in  Pennsylvania,  and  has  often  been 
confounded  with  the  former.  They  were  near  relatives  of 
the  two  distinguished  Lutheran  theologians,  John  Freder- 
ick and  John  Philip  Fresenius.  Stoever's  salary  was  three 
thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  a  year.  Desiring  to  provide 
for  the  permanent  establishment  of  the  church,  the  pastor 
and  two  members,  Michael  Schmidt  and  Michael  Holden, 
in  1734  went  to  Europe,  to  collect  a  fund  for  the  endow- 
ment of  the  church.  They  were  most  cordially  received 
in  London  by  Ziegenhagen  and  the  other  London  pas- 
tors, and  recommended  to  Germany  and  Holland.  The 
Lutherans  of  Hamburg,  where  they  collected  in  Septem- 
ber, 1735,  were  very  generous.  Besides  a  large  amount  of 
money,  they  procured  a  library  of  valuable  theological 
books  for  the  use  of  the  pastors  of  the  church.  A  candi- 
date for  the  ministry,  George  Samuel  Klug,  offered  to  re- 
turn with  them  as  an  additional  pastor,  and  was  ordained 
for  the  work  in  St.  Mary's  Church,  Danzig,  August  30, 
1736.  The  young  minister  proceeded  to  his  new  home 
with  one  of  the  laymen.  Stoever  remained  in  Germany, 
most  of  the  time  with  John  Philip  Fresenius  at  Darmstadt, 
for  the  purpose  of  completing  the  collections,^  and  finally 
died  at  sea  on  his  return  in  1738.  The  result  was  that 
the  contributions  amounted  to  three  thousand  pounds. 
Of  this,  one  third  paid  the  expenses,  another  third  was  de- 

1  "Acta  Historica-Ecclesiastica, "  vol.  iii.,  pp.  1094-99. 


1 86  THE  LUTHERAXS.  [Chap.  x. 

voted  to  the  building  of  a  frame  chapel  and  the  purchase 
of  farm  lands,  and  another  third  to  the  purchase  of  slaves 
to  till  it ;  so  that  Pastor  Klug  reported  in  1 749  that  '*  the 
congregation  was  not  in  the  least  burdened  by  his  sup- 
port," but  complained  of  his  complete  isolation.^ 

1  Ibid.,  vol.  xviii.,  p.  612. 


CHAPTER    XL 

THE    FORERUNNERS    OF    MUHLENBERG. 

The  German  emigration  to  New  York,  being  checked 
by  the  treatment  which  the  Palatinates  experienced  from 
Hunter  and  Livingstone,  was  turned  toward  Pennsylvania. 
Before  the  second  decade  of  the  century  the  number  of 
Lutherans  who  settled  there  was  very  small.  The  church 
at  Falckner's  Swamp,  Montgomery  County,  afterward  New- 
Hanover,  had  been  formed,^  and  in  1719  had  received  the 
gift  of  fifty  acres  of  ground  from  J.  H.  Sprogle,  of  the 
Frankfort  Company.  Gerhard  Henkel  had  served  as  its 
pastor,  to  be  followed  from  1720  to  1723  by  the  Swedish 
pastor,  Samuel  Hesselius. 

The  emigration  to  Pennsylvania  was  in  successive  waves, 
representing  first  various  German  sects,  as  the  Quakers, 
the  Mennonites,  the  Dunkers,  etc.,  then  the  Reformed,  and 
lastly  the  Lutherans.  The  Lutherans  came  not  simply 
from  the  Palatinate,  but  in  large  numbers  from  Wiirtem- 
berg,  Hesse- Darmstadt,  and  Elsass.  Muhlenberg  has  in- 
dicated the  character  of  the  successive  additions  of  Lu- 
therans. Those  arriving  between  1720  and  1730  were,  as 
a  rule,  desirous  of  having  their  religious  wants  provided 
for,  but  were  without  pastors  and  teachers,  and  were  too 
poor  to  send  to  Europe  for  them.      Some  preachers,  how- 

1  As  it  has  now  been  established  that  Justus  Falckner  took  charge  at  New 
York  immediately  on  his  ordination  in  1703,  where  he  continued  until  his 
death,  much  difficulty  is  attached  to  the  tradition  confirmed  by  Acrelius,  of 
his  pastorate  at  the  Swamp.  Either  his  brother,  Daniel,  served  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, or  Justus,  as  a  former  student  of  theology,  but  not  pastor. 

187 


1 88  THE   LUTHERANS.  [Chai-.  xi. 

ever,  were  active  among  them.  Muhlenberg  mentions 
Henkel,  Falckner,  and  Stoever.  Falckner  was  probably 
the  elder  brother  of  the  New  York  pastor.  John  Caspar 
Stoever,  Jr.,  signed  his  name  with  the  title  ^.  5.  TJieol. 
Stud,  on  the  list  of  emigrants  which  arrived  at  Philadel- 
phia September  ii,  1728.  He  was  a  cousin  of  Fresenius 
and  a  grandson  and  nephew  of  two  Lutheran  pastors 
Eberwein,  the  latter  of  whom  (John  Christian),  who  was 
first  pastor  and  teacher  at  Giessen,  and  died  as  dean  of 
St.  Catherine's  Church,  Hamburg,  had  some  reputation  as 
a  hymn-writer.  Mr.  Stoever  preached  first  at  The  Trappe 
in  Montgomery  County,  and  afterward  at  New  Holland, 
Lancaster  County,'  but,  as  there  was  no  one  competent  to 
examine  and  ordain  him,  was  unable  legitimately  to  admin- 
ister the  sacraments.  First  from  New  Holland,  and  then 
from  Lebanon  County,  as  his  home,  he  continued  through- 
out his  life  to  be  an  indefatigable  missionary  and  a  careful 
and  systematic  keeper  of  church  records.  His  name  will 
frequently  reappear. 

In  the  succeeding  decade  Muhlenberg  traces  an  im- 
provement. The  number  of  Germans  increasing,  a  few 
schoolteachers  enter  with  them  who  could  read  sermons 
to  the  people,  but  sometimes  assumed  to  act  as  though 
they  were  ministers,  and  to  administer  the  sacraments. 
The  Germans  press  farther  and  farther  toward  the  frontier, 
as  the  ground  nearest  the  coast  is  occupied  by  their  pred- 
ecessors ;  or  they  tarry  for  a  while  at  the  center  where 
their  countrymen  had  first  settled,  and  then  go  whither 
they  hope  to  find  richer  returns  for  their  labor. 

A  pastor  by  the  name  of  John  Christian  Schultze 
brought  the  Lutherans  of  Philadelphia  into  a  congrega- 
tional organization.  They  had  hitherto  enjoyed  only  oc- 
casional services  from  the  pastors  at  Wicaco,  as,  for  ex- 
ample, probably  even  Fabritius  in  the  preceding  century 


STOEVER  AND  HENKEL.  1 89 

and  afterward  Eneberg.  He  persuaded  them  and  the 
congregations  at  Providence  (The  Trappe)  and  New  Han- 
over to  send  him  and  two  representatives  of  the  laity  to 
Europe  for  help  to  build  and  otherwise  provide  for  their 
churches.  Schultze's  stay  in  this  country  was  brief;  he 
arrived  in  September,  1733,  and  left  in  the  succeeding 
spring.  Before  leaving  he  induced  Mr.  Stoever  to  receive 
from  him  ordination,  in  order  to  take  charge  of  the  three 
congregations  during  what  he  thought  would  be  only  a 
temporary  absence.  Mr.  Stoever's  connection  with  the 
Philadelphia  congregation  ceased  in  the  spring  of  1735. 
Their  place  of  worship  from  1733  to  1743  was  in  a  build- 
ing, sometimes  designated  as  "  a  carpenter's  shop  "  and 
sometimes  **  a  barn,"  on  Arch  Street  below  Fifth,  which 
was  rented  by  them  and  the  Reformed  jointly  from  William 
Allen.  On  Sunday,  June  9,  1734,  Baron  von  Reck  on  his 
way  to  New  England,  being  in  Philadelphia  over  Sunday, 
gathered  together  the  Germans,  and  ''  edified  them  simply, 
according  to  the  grace  which  God  had  given"  him.^  In 
1735  another  layman,  J.  A.  Langerfeldt,  who  had  studied 
at  Halle,  was  prevailed  upon  to  conduct  services  every 
two  weeks.  From  1737  to  1741  the  Swedish  pastor  Dy- 
lander  held  German  services  every  Sunday  in  Gloria  Dei 
Church. 

In  Germantown  the  venerable  St.  Michael's  is  probably 
still  older  than  the  church  in  Philadelphia,  Rev.  Gerhard 
Henkel  having  preached  to  the  Germans  there  before  i  726. 
The  cornerstone  of  a  church  was  laid  in  1730,^  and  the 
church  consecrated  by  the  Swedish  pastor,  Dylander,  Nov- 
ember 6,  1737. 

The  city   of    Lancaster  was   founded   in   1730,   but   its 

^  "  Urlspergerische  Nachrichten,"  vol.  i.,  p.  157. 

2  Acrelius,  p.  237.     "Consecrated"  there  used  is   a  manifest  error,  as 
Dylander  did  not  arrive  until  1737. 


IQO  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xi. 

church  register,  while  begun  in  1733  by  Mr.  Stoever,  has 
records  of  official  acts  irregularly  performed  by  him  there 
as  early  as  1729.  He  continued  to  be  pastor  until  1742. 
At  Earltown  (New  Holland)  Mr.  Stoever's  register  also 
begins  in  1733,  but  contains  records  going  back  to  1730. 
His  pastorate  in  this  field  continued  until  1746.  At  York 
Mr.  Stoever  begins  the  register  in  September,  1733,  and 
served  the  congregation  for  ten  years.  At  Conewago 
(Hanover,  York  County)  Mr.  Stoever  records  the  baptism 
of  John  Jacob  Kitzmiller  in  1731.  The  congregation  at 
New  Hanover  (Falckner's  Swamp)  was  served  by  him  dur- 
ing his  connection  with  the  Philadelphia  congregation.  At 
Tulpehocken,  in  Lebanon  County,  among  the  Lutherans 
who  had  descended  the  Susquehanna  from  their  first  settle- 
ment in  Schoharie,  where  Henkel  had  served  for  a  time,  a 
very  serious  feud  existed  owing  to  the  efforts  of  a  school- 
teacher to  force  himself  upon  the  congregation,  and  the 
election  of  Mr.  Stoever  in  1735,  as  pastor,  by  those  op- 
posed to  him.  Mr.  Stoever  had  performed  ministerial  acts 
there  five  years  previously.  The  Moravians  finally  entered 
into  the  controversy,  and  Zinzendorf  deposed  Mr.  Stoever 
from  the  ministry,  although  the  sentence  had  no  weight 
outside  of  the  count's  own  circle. 

Who  the  first  pastors  were  is  unknown,  but  evidences 
are  at  hand  of  the  building  of  a  log  church  at  Indianfield 
in  1730,  and  of  the  existence  of  a  congregation  at  Old 
Goschenhoppen  in  1732,  which  had  a  church  building  in 
common  with  the  Reformed  in  1736.  Both  these  congre- 
gations are  in  Montgomery  County,  and  the  latter,  before 
the  century  was  over,  gave  to  the  Lutheran  Church  of 
America,  as  one  of  its  baptized  children,  the  ever-to-be- 
revered  Charles  Philip  Krauth,  the  first  president  of  Penn- 
sylvania College,  and  father  of  the  distinguished  theologian 
of  Philadelphia. 


THE   COMMISSION   TO  EUROPE.  191 

In  1737  Mr.  Stoever's  private  journal  has  records  of 
ministerial  acts  as  far  south  as  Orange  County,  Va. 

Considering  the  large  German  emigration  that  had  set 
in,  these  churches  would  have  been  entirely  inadequate, 
even  if  they  had  been  supplied  with  a  sufficient  number 
of  pastors.  In  October,  1739,  the  representatives  of  the 
Lutheran  congregations  in  Pennsylvania  wrote  to  Dr.  Zieg- 
enhagen :  "  There  is  not  one  German  Lutheran  preacher  in 
the  whole  land,  except  Caspar  Stoever,  now  sixty  miles  dis- 
tant from  Philadelphia."  The  spiritual  life  was  what  might 
be  expected  on  the  frontier.  Baron  von  Reck  writes 
of  Philadelphia:  '*  It  is  an  abode  of  all  religions  and 
sects,  Lutherans,  Reformed,  Episcopalians,  Presbyterians, 
Catholics,  Quakers,  Dunkards,  Mennonites,  Sabbatarians, 
Seventh-Day  Baptists,  Separatists,  Bohmists,  Schwenk- 
feldians,  Tuchf elder,  Wohlwiinscher,  Jews,  heathen,  etc." 
(June  6,  1734).  A  new  heathenism  was  threatened,  with 
the  destitution  of  pastors  and  schools.  The  Governor  of 
Pennsylvania  wrote  a  few  years  later :  ''  The  Germans 
imported  with  them  all  the  religious  whimsies  of  their 
country,  and  I  believe  have  subdivided  since  their  arrival 
here."  ^  He  estimates  their  number  then  (1748)  as  three 
fifths  of  the  entire  province. 

The  German  Lutherans  grew  more  and  more  distressed 
at  their  own  condition.  They  appealed  to  the  Swedish 
pastors,  but  they  could  only  occasionally  aid  them.  They 
repeatedly  wrote  to  Dr.  Ziegenhagen  at  London,  Dr.  G.  A. 
Francke  at  Halle,  and  Dr.  Fresenius  at  Darmstadt.  The 
proposition  of  Pastor  Schultze  to  send  a  commission  to 
England  and  Germany  to  personally  interview  the  pastors 
in  London  and  the  authorities  at  Halle  was  a  wise  one,  al- 

1  Governor  Thomas  to  the  Bishop  of  Exeter.  "  Papers  Relating  to  the 
History  of  the  Church  in  Pennsylvania,"  edited  by  William  Stevens  Perry, 
p.  256. 


192  .  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xi. 

though  the  result  long  seemed  a  disappointment,  and  years 
passed  before  any  relief  came.  With  these  years  of  wait- 
ing there  were  also  new  perils.  Even  the  collections 
made  threatened  to  amount  to  nothing  more  than  sources 
of  scandal,  the  details  of  which  may  be  read  in  the  corre- 
spondence attached  to  the  first  part  of  the  new  edition  of 
the  Halle  ''Reports." 

The  laymen,  commissioned  by  the  congregations  at 
Philadelphia,  New  Hanover,  and  Providence  (Trappe),  to 
accompany  Pastor  Schultze  to  Europe  were  Daniel  Weiss- 
iger  and  John  Daniel  Sch5ner.  They  were  furnished  with 
credentials  from  the  officers '  of  the  three  congregations, 
stating  the  object  of  their  mission,  together  with  a  certifi- 
cate from  Governor  Gordon  of  Pennsylvania. 

Upon  the  presentation  of  these  to  Dr.  Ziegenhagen  he 
wrote  an  open  letter  (January  28,  1734)  to  a  clergyman 
of  Hanover,  highly  indorsing  the  object,  but  speaking  of 
his  distress  at  his  inability  to  give  any  important  relief. 
He  quotes  in  it  an  extract  from  a  letter  of  Weissiger  to 
him  the  preceding  October,  which  Muhlenberg  afterward 
incorporated  in  the  Halle  '*  Reports,"  as  a  faithful  descrip- 
tion of  the  situation : 

We  live  in  a  country  that  is  full  of  heresy  and  sects.  As  far  as  our  relig- 
ious interests  are  concerned,  we  are  in  a  state  of  the  greatest  destitution ;  and 
our  own  means  are  utterly  insufficient  to  effect  the  necessary  relief,  unless 
God  in  his  mercy  may  send  us  help  and  means  from  abroad.  It  is  truly 
lamentable  to  think  of  the  large  numbers  of  the  rising  generation  who  know 
not  their  right  hand  from  their  left ;  and,  unless  help  be  promptly  afforded, 
the  danger  is  great  that,  in  consequence  of  the  great  lack  of  churches  and 
schools,  the  most  of  them  will  be  misled  into  the  ways  of  destructive  error. 
He  who  tries  the  hearts  and  reins  knows  how  very  much  we  need  the  mate- 
rial aid  of  our  Christian  brethren.  Truly,  in  our  appeal  for  pecuniary  con- 
tributions we  have  desired  nothing  but  the  glory  of  God  and  the  welfare  of 
souls,  so  many  of  whom  are  scattered  abroad  throughout  the  land.  We  do 
not  at  all  contemplate  the  building  of  imposing  and  expensive  churches.      If 

'  Johann  Backer,  Hans  George  Herger,  Adam  Herrmann,  George  Holle- 
bach,  Joh.  Nicol.  Crossmann,  Jacob  Schrack. 


NEW  DIFFICULTIES.  1 93 

we  only  have  enough  to  erect,  in  several  places,  such  buildings  as  may  enable 
us  to  come  together  in  a  respectable  way  to  praise  and  worship  our  Lord  in 
an  appropriate  manner,  and  also  to  give  the  necessary  instruction  to  the  youth, 
we  shall  be  satisfied,  l 

With  this  letter  Weissiger  published  in  the  succeeding 
May  a  statement  that  the  three  congregations  consisted 
of  about  five  hundred  families  each.  Efforts  were  made 
both  in  Denmark  and  Holland  to  secure  funds,  but  with- 
out success.  The  amount  secured  was  small  when  com- 
pared with  what  the  elder  Stoever  succeeded  afterward  in 
obtaining  for  his  congregation  in  Virginia.  Pastor  Schultze 
was  not  regarded  with  favor,  and  was  repeatedly  accused 
of  having  appropriated  funds  which  he  received.  He  re- 
mained in  Germany.  Weissiger,  upon  whom  the  chief 
responsibility  fell,  returned  to  America  with  the  first  Salz- 
burg colony. 

The  authorities  at  Halle  prepared  a  series  of  regulations 
concerning  the  calling  of  a  pastor  to  the  three  congrega- 
tions. He  was  to  be  ordained  before  leaving  Germany, 
after  having  received  a  call  according  to  a  form  which  they 
prepared.  The  duties  of  the  congregations  to  pastors  are 
enumerated  and  especially  enjoined  upon  them.  A  fixed 
compensation  in  money  must  be  promised  in  advance,  as 
the  payment  of  the  salary  in  tobacco  or  produce  would  in- 
volve the  pastor  in  secular  business.  In  the  form  of  call, 
not  only  necessary  sustenance  is  pledged,  but  also  travel- 
ing expenses  to  Germany,  should  a  pastor  desire  to  return. 

Long  delay  followed.  Francke  and  Ziegenhagen  insisted 
upon  most  clear  and  definite  arrangements  for  the. support 
of  the  pastor,  before  they  would  mention  any  name.  A 
letter  from  Halle  to  Ziegenhagen  says : 

As  to  the  congregation  at  Philadelphia,  I  wish  most  sincerely  that  whole- 
some counsel  may  be  given  them ;  for  I  cannot,  at  present,  see  how  he  could 

1  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  new  ed.,  p.  10;  English  translation,  p.  14. 


194  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xi. 

be  sustained.  Men  of  good  parts  are  needed  everywhere  ;  and  I  know  of  sev- 
eral places  where  such  men  may  be  employed.  I  therefore  have  my  doubts 
about  sending  a  good  man  to  America  upon  an  uncertainty ;  and,  besides, 
such  a  man  would  hardly  be  willing  to  go  if  he  were  aware  of  all  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case.  To  keep  these  hidden,  and  to  send  a  good  man  thither 
with  the  impression  on  his  mind  that  matters  are  otherwise  and  better  than 
they  really  are,  is  a  movement  for  which  we  would  not  be  responsible.  We 
had  better,  then,  wait  for  some  more  propitious  occasion,  when  either  the 
people  themselves  will  be  reduced  to  order  by  their  very  necessities,  or  we 
can  obtain  a  stronger  assurance  that  when  a  good  man  is  sent  to  them  they 
will  receive  and  treat  him  in  a  becoming  manner.  .  .  .  Further,  it  is  a  ques- 
tion whether  it  would  be  right  to  send  one  man  alone ;  because  the  people 
living  in  such  confusion  and  distracted  with  all  kinds  of  whimsical  notions, 
would  be  sure  to  make  his  life  a  very  bitter  one.  In  view  of  these  things,  he 
ought  to  be  a  man  of  solid,  commanding  character,  well  qualified  to  encounter 
such  spirits  ;  and  where  shall  we  find  such  a  man?  i 

To  such  presentations  the  representatives  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania congregations  answered : 

We  do  not  propose  to  let  our  pastors  suffer  want,  but  much  rather  to 
support  them  according  to  our  ability.  On  the  other  hand,  we  desire  as  our 
pastor,  not  a  covetous  man,  nor  one  ruled  by  temporal  motives,  but  a  man 
who  out  of  a  sincere  heart  and  out  of  love  to  God  is  constrained  to  come  to 
our  help  and  to  enter  into  the  pastoral  ofhce  amongst  us.  We  live  in  a  land 
in  which  a  pastor  cannot  expect  to  enjoy  himself  in  a  magnificent  parsonage, 
in  a  life  of  luxury,  and  with  large  revenues  ;  but  for  a  faithful  pastor,  who  is 
a  true  apostle  of  Christ  and  has  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  in  him,  measures  will 
certainly  be  taken  to  secure  him  an  adequate  support.  .  .  .  We  have  to  state 
clearly  and  candidly  that  we  cannot  bind  ourselves  either  to  raise  a  salary  of 
fifty  pounds  sterling  per  year,  or  to  advance  to  you  any  large  sum  to  meet 
traveling  expenses,  or  to  defray  the  expense  of  going  back  to  Germany.  .  .  . 
Most  people  refuse  to  contribute  to  such  a  fund,  fearing  lest,  as  has  happened 
already  at  New  York,  we  might  receive  a  teacher  who  would  occasion  more 
harm  and  offense  than  benefit  and  edification  to  the  church,  as  Pastor  Schultze 
has  done.  2 

Three  years  later  they  write  to  Dr.  Ziegenhagen  with 
great  indignation : 

1  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  new  ed.,  p.  6i ;  English  translation,  pp.  92 
sqq. 

2  //;/(/.,  p.  62;   English  translation,  pp.  96  sqq. 


A    QUESTION  OF  SALARY.  1 95 

It  looks  as  if  money  had  more  power  than  any  spiritual  principle  has  to 
urge  you  to  labor  for  the  spreading  of  the  kingdom  of  God ;  although  a  bishop 
ought  not  be  covetous,  and  Christ  commanded  his  disciples  not  to  carry  a 
purse. 

Ziegenhagen's  life  certainly  disproved  any  such  charge 
among  those  who  knew  him. 

If  your  Reverence  and  Professor  Francke  could  see  with  your  own  eyes  the 
sad  condition  of  the  many  poor  people  who  are  coming  to  this  country  every 
year  and  are  put  out  to  service  among  other  sects — poor  people  who  would 
be  so  glad  to  go,  on  Sunday,  to  a  church  of  their  own  confession — you  would 
understand  that,  in  case  you  continue  to  hold  back  and  delay  any  longer,  you 
will  surely  have  a  great  responsibility  before  you  in  the  presence  of  God  on 
that  great  day  of  judgment,  because  you  have  not  so  much  as  permitted  the 
collected  funds  to  be  applied  to  the  objects  to  which  benevolent  hearts  have 
given  them,  that  is,  the  building  of  our  churches  and  schools.  The  Lord 
reward  all  these  benevolent  friends  a  thousandfold,  in  every  way ;  although 
you  see  proper  to  withhold  it  from  us,  under  the  pretext  that  we  must  first 
call  a  preacher  whom  you  know  and  can  trust,  and  must  expressly  promise 
and  bind  ourselves  to  give  him  a  certain  specified  salary  every  year,  all  of 
which  is  directly  contrary  to  the  teachings  of  Christ  (Matt.  vi.  t,t,),  "  Seek  ye 
first,"  etc.  So  we  believe  and  are  convinced,  that  if  a  faithful  pastor  whose 
trust  is  in  the  Lord  were  to  come  to  us,  all  these  things  would  be  added  unto 
him,  and  he  would  have  a  rich  abundance  to  help  him  through.  But  so  far, 
the  principle  seems  to  be,  provide  for  the  body  first,  before  the  salvation  of 
souls  can  be  considered. 

Thus  these  Pennsylvania  Germans,  Henry  Nilber,  George 
Beck,  Thomas  Meyer,  John  N.  Grossman,  Matthew  Ringer, 
and  Jacob  Schrack,  undertook  to  teach  the  doctors  in  Lon- 
don and  at  Halle  theology.  But  it  seems  strange  that  fif- 
teen hundred  families,  in  the  three  congregations,  could 
not  have  laid  the  same  text  to  heart  so  as  to  have  gath- 
ered together  the  few  hundred  dollars  needed,  rather  than 
to  have  remained  for  years  without  the  regular  preaching 
of  the  Word.^    There  was  fault  undoubtedly  on  both  sides. 

1  "  A  few  of  the  Lutherans  wrote  repeatedly  to  Germany  for  a  preacher; 
but  many  years  passed  over  without  one,  because  they  did  not  mention  at 
the  same  time  what  salary  he  was  to  have ;  and  word  was  even  sent  them 
that  none  would  be  provided  unless  they  determined  his  salary  beforehand." 
— Spangenberg's  "  Life  of  Zinzendorf,"  English  translation,  p.  294. 


196  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xi. 

A  young  minister  of  thorough  consecration  would  not 
have  hesitated  long  about  assurances  of  salary,  with  such 
a  vast  field  for  usefulness  opening  to  him.  The  principles 
according  to  which  the  Halle  institutions  were  founded 
should  have  taught  this.  Had  the  proper  man  occurred 
to  Dr.  Francke  or  Dr.  Ziegenhagen,  the  other  difficulties 
would  have  probably  disappeared ;  as  they  did  when,  at 
last,  in  1 74 1,  Henry  Melchior  Muhlenberg  was  called  to 
the  work.  It  was  during  this  interval  that  fruitless  ap- 
peals were  made  both  by  the  congregations  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  the  authorities  at  Halle  to  Boltzius  to  go  to 
Pennsylvania,  examine  the  situation,  and  aid  in  preparing 
for  a  pastor. 

Before  we  come  to  the  call  and  work  of  Muhlenberg, 
the  neglected  congregations  in  Pennsylvania  are  made  to 
feel  the  thrill  of  a  strong  religious  life  by  the  sudden  ap- 
pearance among  them  of  Count  Zinzendorf.  Aglow  with 
zeal  for  Christ,  throwing  all  emphasis  in  his  teaching  upon 
the  one  doctrine  of  redemption  through  the  blood  shed  on 
Calvary,  all  the  social  advantages  and  influence  and  wealth 
which  his  position  gave  him  were  made  subservient  to  that 
of  preaching  Christ  and  him  crucified  to  the  rich  and  the 
poor,  the  learned  and  the  ignorant.  Brought  up  in  the 
Lutheran  Church,  as  a  member  of  the  school  of  Spener, 
who  had  been  his  godfather,  and  educated  in  part  at  Halle 
under  Francke,  his  enthusiastic  spirit  broke  through  both 
the  precision  of  theological  definition  required  in  the  Lu- 
theran Church  and  the  restraints  imposed  by  ascetic  tend- 
encies he  deemed  inconsistent  with  the  freedom  of  the 
gospel  that  he  felt  were  already  beginning  to  prevail  at 
Halle.  Traveling  extensively,  he  even  showed  a  leaning 
toward  the  more  mystical  element  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  and  cultivated  for  a  time  an  intimacy  with  Car- 
dinal de  Noailles.      Interested  in  the  followers  of  Huss  in 


ZINZENDORF'S  LUTHERANISM.  197 

Moravia,  he  purchased  the  estate  at  Berthelsdorf  and 
transferred  them  to  it,  soon  uniting  with  them,  then  enter- 
ing their  ministry,  and  then  becoming  one  of  their  bishops, 
**  having  in  view,"  as  his  associate  Spangenberg  says, 
*'  Spener's  idea  of  a  reformation  of  the  church,"  and  tak- 
ing it  for  granted  that  this  was  to  be  accompHshed  "  by 
means  of  a  faithful  repetition  and  promulgation  of  Luther's 
evangelical  doctrines,  as  contained  in  the  Holy  Scriptures 
and  the  Augsburg  Confession."  ^ 

The  esteem  he  felt,  even  when  a  child,  for  Luther's  Small  Catechism  and 
the  divine  truths  contained  in  it,  he  continued  to  feel  during  his  whole  life. 
He  regarded  it  as  the  most  valuable  book  next  to  the  Bible,  and  as  a  master- 
piece of  that  distinguished  servant  of  God,  in  the  composition  of  which  he 
had  been  certainly  most  powerfully  assisted  and  directed  by  the  Spirit  of 
God.  2 

Professing  still  to  be  a  Lutheran,  even  after  he  became 
a  Moravian,  he  thought  that  all  points  in  the  Lutheran  faith 
which  had  involved  or  would  involve  serious  controversy 
should  be  kept  from  the  knowledge  of  the  people.^  To 
them  he  would  preach  nothing  but  those  simple  truths 
upon  which  there  could  be  no  dispute  among  godly  men, 
and  those  truths  he  believed  to  be  taught  in  their  greatest 
simplicity  and  power  in  the  Lutheran  Church.  The  fol- 
lowing incident  which  occurred  in  Pennsylvania,  related 
by  Spangenberg,  illustrates  this : 

Having  once  taken  a  person  with  him  to  show  him  the  way  through  the  wood, 
he  asked  him  of  what  religion  he  was.  "A  Lutheran,  to  be  sure,"  said  his 
guide.  "  But  do  you  know  what  it  is  to  be  a  Lutheran?  "  asked  the  count. 
This  question  startled  the  man,  who  honestly  confessed  that  he  did  not. 
On  inquiring  further  whether  he  would  be  glad  to  have  it  explained  to  him, 
and  receiving  an  answer  in  the  affirmative,  the  count  prolonged  his  journey 
so  as  to  find  time  to  converse  with  the  guide  during  the  night,  and  then  de- 
scribed to  him,  with  a  warm  heart,  what  it  was  to  be  a  Lutheran.  This  so 
affected  the  man  that  it  proved  the  means  of  his  conversion. ■* 

1  "Life  of  Zinzendorf,"  p.  42.  2  Ibid.^  p.  3. 

3  Ibid,  p.  42.  4  Ibid,,  p.  314. 


198  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xi. 

To  the  deadness  and  Indifference  that  prevailed  in  many 
parts  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  to  the  lamentable  lack  of 
the  exercise  of  church  discipline,  to  the  philosophical  treat- 
ment of  religious  questions  that  was  entering  within  the 
sphere  of  theological  instruction,  and  the  bitterness  of 
the  controversies  that  gave  him  great  offense,  he  at  first 
thought  of  attempting  to  oppose  a  new  reformation,  but 
finally  was  persuaded  that  this  was  not  the  proper  remedy. 
His  scheme  grew  into  a  more  comprehensive  one.  His 
aim  next  was  to  infuse  a  new  spirit  into  all  church  com- 
munions. He  started  upon  the  truth,  taught  in  the  Lu- 
theran confessions,  that  the  true  church  is  not  properly 
any  external  organization,  but  is  scattered  over  the  whole 
world. ^  Recognizing  the  fact,  therefore,  that  among  all 
confessions  there  are  some  true  children  of  God,  his  plan 
was  to  unite  them  into  a  confederacy,  within  which  the 
various  denominations  were  still  to  remain  distinct.  This, 
however,  would  have  proved  only  another  external  organ- 
ization from  which  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  have 
excluded  unbelievers,  and  outside  of  which  there  would 
have  still  been  innumerable  children  of  God. 

No  more  determined  opponents  of  Zinzendorf  were  to 
be  found  than  the  theologians  of  the  Halle  school.  It  was 
not  only  that  they  saw  that  they  were  in  danger  of  being 
held  responsible  for  the  alleged  extravagances  of  this  god- 
son of  Spener  and  pupil  of  Francke,  but  because  they  be- 
lieved that  they  had  no  right  to  be  silent  when,  as  they  were 
convinced,  important  doctrines  of  God's  Word  were  con- 
cealed, and  questions  which  had  been  long  settled  were 
opened  for  a  repetition  of  the  bitter  experiences  of  the 
past.  The  teachers  at  Halle  had  no  more  interest  in  con- 
troversy, for  its  own  sake,  than  had  Zinzendorf ;  but  they 
could  not  be  silent  concerning  the  fruits  of  the  church's 

1  Ibid.,  p.  28;  "Apology  of  Augsburg  Confession,"  chapter  iv.,  ^  lO. 


BENGEL   AND  ERESENIUS.  1 99 

conflicts.  Hence  they  regarded  the  well-meant  efforts  of 
their  former  pupil  or  fellow-student  as  involving  great 
danger,  by  the  confusion  it  would  work  among  congrega- 
tions where  it  would  enter. 

The  course  of  Halle  was  approved  and  its  protests  pow- 
erfully supported  by  a  school,  probably  more  thoroughly 
representing  the  first  age  of  Halle.  At  the  head  of  this 
school  was  the  great  New  Testament  critic  and  exegete, 
Bengel,  who,  with  high  appreciation  of  the  noble  character 
of  Zinzendorf,  and  in  a  spirit  which  is  a  model  for  all  con- 
troversialists, expressed  in  several  treatises  his  most  decided 
dissent.  "  To  the  essential  and  primary  doctrine  of  the 
atonement  by  Christ's  precious  blood,  my  own  heart  most 
fully  assents  and  accords ;  indeed,  every  true  Christian 
from  Luther's  time  to  the  present  has  been  distinguisherl 
by  deep  attachment  to  it "  ;^  but  Zinzendorf,  he  says,  falls 
into  the  imagination  of  those  who  think  "  no  part  of  a 
clock  so  useful  as  the  dial  hand."  The  repeated  efforts  of 
the  count  to  gain  a  foothold  in  the  Wiirtemberg  church 
rendered  it  afterward  necessary,  in  Bengel's  judgment,  to 
oppose  him  at  greater  length,  especially  when  the  Lu- 
theran Church  was  arraigned  as  being  the  church  at  Laod- 
icea  of  the  eighteenth  century.^  In  this  treatise  he  espe- 
cially shows  the  further  development  of  Zinzendorf's  views 
beyond  those  held  at  the  period  now  considered. 

A  still  more  active  opponent  was  Dr.  J.  Philip  Fresenius, 
above  mentioned,  whose  works  on  various  subjects  con- 
nected with  Zinzendorf  and  the  progress  of  the  movement 
which  he  started  comprise  a  number  of  volumes,  some  of 
them  containing  many  valuable  original  documents. 

When,  in  1734,  intelligence  had  reached  Halle  that 
Spangenberg  had  been  holding  some  interviews  with  Dan- 

1  "Memoir,"  by  his  son-in-law,  J.  F.  Burk,  p.  406. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  412. 


200  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xi. 

iel  Weissiger,  the  latter  found  It  necessary,  in  a  rather 
ev^asive  letter,  to  explain  to  the  younger  Francke  that  no 
league  had  been  made  between  them.'  Nor  could  the 
influence  of  Dr.  Ziegenhagen  be  secured  in  the  efforts  to 
send  Moravian  bishops  to  America,  even  when  they  came 
to  him  with  a  letter  of  introduction  from  Dr.  Buddeus.^ 

We  cannot  doubt  that  Zinzendorf  had  learned  of  the 
great  neglect  of  the  Lutherans  in  Pennsylvania,  and  that 
his  restless  spirit  longed  to  be  active  within  it.  The  knowl- 
edge gained  by  Spangenberg's  interviews  with  Weissiger 
was  doubtless  confirmed  by  what  was  further  learned  from 
the  colony  founded  in  Georgia  in  1735,  which  in  1 740  w^as 
transferred  to  the  Lehigh  Valley  in  Pennsylvania.  Arriv- 
ing in  Philadelphia  at  the  close  of  November,  174 1,  he 
rented  a  house  in  Germantown,  and  began  his  journeys 
among  the  Germans,  in  order  to  reconnoiter  the  field.  He 
estimated  the  number  in  Pennsylvania  as  one  hundred 
thousand,  and  their  religious  condition  such  that  '*  it  had 
become  proverbial,  respecting  any  one  who  cared  not  for 
God  and  his  Word,  that  *  he  was  of  the  Pennsylvanian  re- 
ligion.' "  ^  His  first  sermon  was  preached  in  the  Reformed 
Church  of  Germantown,  December  20,  1 741,  on  i  Tim- 
othy iii.  16.  On  January  i,  1742,  he  held  in  his  house 
at  Germantown  the  first  of  his  conferences,  at  which  there 
were  present  four  Seventh-Day  Baptists,  some  other  Bap- 
tists, and  Mennonites,  with  a  few  Lutherans  and  Reformed. ^ 
Of  the  other  conferences  we  will  speak  later. 

The  interest  of  the  Lutherans  in  Philadelphia  was  enlisted 
by  these  conferences,  so  that  they  asked  him  to  preach 
for  them  regularly.      After  obtaining  the  assurance  of  the 

1  ■'  Hallesche  Nachricliten,"  English  translation,  p.  84. 

2  Stoughton's  "  Religion  in  England  under  Queen  Anne  and  the  Georges," 
vol.  i.,  p.  355, 

3  Spangenberg's  "  Life  of  Zinzendorf,"  p.  294. 

4  Fresenius,  "  Herrnhutische  Nachrichten,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  147. 


ZINZENDORF  IN  PHILADELPHIA.  20I 

Reformed  pastor,  Rev.  Mr.  Bohme,  that  he  did  not  object 
to  the  arrangement,  he  accepted  the  invitation.  Eight  of 
the  sermons  preached  by  him  to  the  Philadelphia  Luther- 
ans have  been  published,  and  have  a  value  beyond  that  of 
their  historical  associations.  He  declined  for  a  time  to 
administer  the  Lord's  Supper,  but  did  so  finally  on  Easter 
Monday.  In  the  communion  sermon  on  the  text  Matthew 
ix.  13,  he  begins  by  speaking  of  his  great  gratitude,  as  a 
Lutheran  who  for  years  has  been  protesting  against  the  sad 
corruptions  of  his  religion  in  Europe,  in  being  permitted 
for  the  first  time  to  administer  the  Lord's  Supper  to  Luther- 
ans in  another  land  where  all  religions  are  in  low  esteem. 
He  assures  them  that  he  holds  the  fundamental  principles 
of  the  Lutheran  Church  to  be  the  only  true  ones,  and  that 
to  him  it  is  the  most  cherished  of  all  faiths,  and  the  one 
that  seems  to  him  to  be  in  America  the  most  capable  of 
being  aided.i  He  then  proceeds  to  ''  a  simple  exposition 
of  our  Lutheran  Confession,"  in  which  he  dwells  upon  each 
clause  of  the  familiar  confessional  prayer : 

"/,  a  poor,  miserable,  sinful  j/ioi.''''  I,  a  poor  rwdin,  who  know  of  nothing 
to  help  me;  I,  a  miserable  man,  distressed  by  my  poverty,  and  conscious  of 
what  I  lack ;  I,  a  sinful  man,  who,  even  though  I  am  a  child  of  God,  even 
though  I  have  grace,  have,  until  the  grave,  sinful  flesh,  and  bear  the  treasure 
which  I  have  from  my  Saviour  in  an  earthen  vessel,  in  order  that  the  sur- 
passing power  may  be  of  God,  and  not  of  me. 

''  Confess  unto  thee  all  my  sins  and  offenses  ^  "Who  is  it  to  whom  we 
here  make  confession?  Who  is  it,  according  to  our  Lutheran  doctrine?  Do 
you  know  who  it  is?  "  says  Luther. 

"Jesus  Christ  it  is, 
Of  Sabaoth  Lord, 
And  there's  none  other  God." 

To  him  we  confess,  not  that  we  are,  by  nature,  miserable  men  ;  he  knows 
that,  for  he  bore  our  humanity ;  but  that  we  have  pained  and  crucified  him 
anew  by  actual  sins  and  offenses.   .   .   . 

1  Eine  Sammburg,  "  OfTentlicher  Reden,"  Biidingen,  1744. 


202  THE   LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xi. 

^^  That  we  have  deserved  temporal  and  everlasting  punishment.''''  That  is 
true ;  and  I  most  of  you  all.  For  the  more  the  Saviour  bestows  upon  one 
his  grace  and  mercy,  the  longer  we  be  with  him,  the  more  disgraceful  is  all 
want  of  fidelity,  the  greater  all  transgressions  ;  the  least  frivolity  of  a  child 
of  God  is  a  greater  sin  than  it  is  for  an  unconverted  man  to  be  drunk  or  to 
steal.  If  I  know  that  I  ought  to  do  good  and  do  it  not,  either  from  love 
of  ease  or  from  fear,  I  have  far  more  guilt  than  another.  We  are,  therefore, 
all  alike  before  the  Lord,  viz.,  sinners.  One  has  more,  another  less;  the 
offenses  of  one  are  greater  because  he  has  received  more  grace,  and  therefore 
more  discernment.  Hence  one  kind  of  poor  sinners  always  comes  together ; 
the  one  that  is  so  bad,  and  the  other  that  is  no  better.   .   .   . 

He  closed  the  exposition  with  the  words,  "  Now  I  am 
through  with  the  confession."  The  absolution  he  next 
gave,  in  the  following  form : 

Upon  the  great  word  of  my  Lord,  upon  the  assurance  which  I  have  in  my 
soul  of  his  fidelity  and  of  his  love,  I  announce  to  you  the  grace  to  heartily 
repent  of  your  sins,  and  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  assistance  of  God  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  laying  aside  your  sinful  will,  and  freedom  in  Christ's  blood 
to  amend  your  lives  ;  and  by  virtue  of  my  office,  as  a  called  and  ordained 
minister  of  Christ,  I  forgive  all  those  of  you  who  believe  all  your  sins,  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

After  a  hymn  another  address  was  made,  treating  of 
the  assurance  which  the  Holy  Supper  gives  the  faith  of 
believers : 

I  know,  with  the  greatest  certainty,  that  he  will  impart  to  you  the  divine 
power  of  his  Spirit  and  of  his  life,  since  Jesus  Christ  and  his  body,  which 
was  pierced  and  hung  upon  the  tree  for  us,  and  his  living  blood,  which  was 
shed  for  us,  are  present  and  distributed  with  the  bread  and  wine.  ...  I  in- 
vite you,  then,  to  eat  his  flesh  and  to  drink  his  blood,  not  as  a  sign,  not  as 
a  figure,  but  as  a  reality,  as  a  substance,  as  a  truth,  as  a  sacrament,  for  the 
forgiveness  of  sins,  for  life  and  salvation. 

As  if  to  vouch  for  the  thoroughly  Lutheran  character  of 
the  service,  he  appends  the  mode  in  which  the  order  of  the 
communion  followed : 

I.  The  Lord's  Prayer.  2.  The  words  of  institution  con- 
cerning the  bread.  3.  Choir:  "  Wir  glauben  all  und  be- 
kennen  frei."     4.   The  words  of  institution  concerning  the 


ZINZENDORF'S  SCHEME.  203 

wine.  5.  '*  O  Welt,  sieh  hier  dein  Leben,"  during  which 
6.  The  communion.  7.  Tiianksgiving  Collect.  8.  Bene- 
diction. 1 

The  next  step  was  his  election  as  pastor.  On  May  26, 
I  742,  he  induced  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  to  give  him 
an  audience,  at  which  Benjamin  Franklin,  William  Allen, 
James  Hamilton,  and  other  prominent  men  were  present. 
He  delivered  to  them  a  Latin  address  explaining  why  he 
desired,  while  in  America,  to  lay  aside  his  title  of  "  count  " 
and  assume  that  simply  of  Mr.  von  Thiirnstein.  Instead 
of  this  he  assumed  the  ecclesiastical  title  *'  EvangeHcal 
Lutheran  Inspector  and  Pastor  at  Philadelphia."  2  At  a 
conference  in  Germantown  he  announced  that  he  had  re- 
established in  Philadelphia  the  true,  primitive,  and  correct 
Lutheran  religion,  and  that  all  who  had  deserted  their 
religions  must  return  thither,  viz.,  to  the  Lutheran  Church.^ 
He  showed  his  earnestness  by  publishing  an  edition  of 
Luther's  Small  Cathechism. 

Meanwhile,  however,  his  influence  was  felt  in  the  Re- 
formed Church.  A  turner  by  the  name  of  Bechtel  was 
made  pastor  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  Germantown,  and 
then  consecrated  by  Bishop  Nitzschmann  and  Zinzendorf 
as  inspector,  elder,  and  teacher*  over  the  other  Reformed 
preachers.^  Rev.  J.  P.  Bohnie,  the  Reformed  pastor  of 
Philadelphia,  whose  permission  to  preach  in  the  Lutheran 
Church  Zinzendorf  had  so  courteously  asked,  was  indig- 
nant at  this  interference,  without  his  advice  or  consent,  in 
the  affairs  of  the  Reformed  Church,  and  issued  a  vigorous 
pamphlet  of  ninety-six  pages,  warning  his  brethren  against 
the  count.^     For  the  Reformed  Churches  he  also  prepared 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  100-107.  2  See  title-page  of  above  book. 

3  Fresenius'  "  Herrnhutische  Nachrichten,"  p.  184. 

4  Fresenius,  vol.  iii.,  p.  182. 

5  Full  synopsis  in  Fresenius,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  562  sqq. 


204  ^-^-^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xi. 

a  substitute  for  the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  and  published 
it  under  Bechtel's  name,^  This  remarkable  document  com- 
prised the  articles  of  the  synod  of  Berne  of  1532,  by 
substituting  which  he  cut  loose  from  all  connection  with 
Calvin,  providing,  at  the  same  time,  a  confession  of  the 
Reformed  Church  and  a  series  of  questions  asked  by  *'  one 
desirous  of  instruction,"  and  answered,  as  far  as  possible, 
in  Scriptural  language,  by  **  a  believer." 

When  Zinzendorf  introduced  Rev.  J.  C.  Pyrlaeus,  a 
former  Leipzig  student,  into  the  Lutheran  congregation  as 
his  assistant,  the  new  minister  was  carried  bodily  from  the 
church  to  the  street  and  insulted,  Spangenberg  says,  by 
"some  wicked  people  who  called  themselves  Reformed."  2 
Zinzendorf  was  active  also  at  Tulpehocken,  and  at  other 
points,  as  Heidelberg,  Oley,  and  Falckner's  Swamp.  But 
even  before  Muhlenberg  arrived,  the  necessity  of  a  separate 
organization  for  his  adherents  in  Philadelphia  had  become 
manifest,  and  a  Moravian  church  was  erected  and  conse- 
crated, November  25,  1742.^ 

Of  the  eight  conferences  which  Zinzendorf  held  with  the 
view  of  uniting  the  denominations  in  his  scheme  of  church 
union,  the  first,  as  we  have  seen,  was  held  in  Germantown, 
January  ist;  the  second,,  at  Falckner's  Swamp,  January 
14th  and  15th;  the  third,  at  Oley,  February  ioth-i2th; 
and  the  fourth,  at  Germantown,  March  10-12,  1742.  Of 
the  last,  it  is  said  that  the  members  were  composed  of 
Moravians,  Reformed,  Lutherans,  and  Baptists,  and  that 
the  Quakers  would  have  been  represented,  if  it  had  not 
been  that  an  effectual  barrier  was  interposed  by  the  diver- 
sity of  language.  Among  the  principles  of  the  organization 
were  the  following : 

1  Account  with  criticism  and  ample  extracts  in  "  Acta  Historica-Ecclesias- 
tica,"  vol.  vii.,  pp.  952  sqq. 

2  "  Life  of  Zinzendorf,"  p.  298. 

3  Dr.  B.  M.  Schmucker,  "  Lutheran  Year-book,"  p.  209. 


VALENTINE   KRAET.  205 

All  children  of  God,  in  all  religions  in  Pennsylvania,  are  in  duty  bound  to 
hold  to  the  conference. 

If  any  child  of  God  be  at  the  same  time  a  servant  of  Christ,  he  is,  first  of 
all,  bound  to  his  own  religion. 

And  if  in  the  future  a  servant  of  Christ  abandon  his  religion  without  our 
previous  knowledge,  we  no  longer  recognize  him  as  a  servant  of  Christ. 

Hence  it  follows  : 

I.  That  no  child  of  God  will  speak  against  our  conference ;  for  this  would 
be  contrary  to  his  heart. 

II.  That  if  a  servant  and  child  of  God  merely  from  love  to  his  people  will 
not  attend  our  conference,  we  cannot  reckon  it  against  him. 

A  prominent  lay  member  of  several  of  these  conferences 
was  the  distinguished  Indian  agent,  Conrad  Weiser,  of 
whom  we  have  already  heard  as  a  member  of  the  Scho- 
harie colony  that  had  floated  down  the  Susquehanna  and 
located  at  Tulpehocken.  He  was  afterward  to  become  the 
father-in-law  of  Muhlenberg. 

The  longer  Zinzendorf's  activity  continued,  the  greater 
injury  was  being  done  by  the  confusion  he  was  creating, 
which  could  not  be  compensated  by  all  the  graces  of  his 
Christian  character  and  his  undoubted  consuming  zeal  for 
Christ.  But  if  Zinzendorf  had  not  entered  in  this  irregular 
way,  would  Muhlenberg  have  ever  been  sent?  It  required 
his  presence  to  excite  the  Halle  authorities  to  the  peril  of 
the  situation. 

When  the  struggle  became  so  severe  that  Zinzendorf 
withdrew  with  his  adherents  to  found  a  church  of  his  own, 
although  still  claiming  to  be  the  Lutheran  congregation  of 
Philadelphia,  a  still  greater  danger  arose,  if  his  influence 
could  have  lasted,  when  a  dismissed  Lutheran  minister 
from  Germany,  John  Valentine  Kraft,  became  pastor  of 
another  fragment  of  the  Philadelphia  congregation,  and 
also  claimed  to  be  superintendent  of  the  Lutheran  churches 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  to  have  organized  a  consistorium  of 
which  he  was  head.^  In  this  dark  hour  Muhlenberg 
arrived. 

1  Dr.  B.  M.  Schmucker,  ibid.^  p.  209. 


PERIOD  II. 
THE  FIRST  ATTEMPTS  AT  ORGANIZATION. 

A.D.    I742-1817. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

MUHLENBERG'S    CALL    AND    ARRIVAL. 

The  year  1 742  is  eventful  in  the  history  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  America.  It  would  be  wrong  to  designate  it  as 
that  of  the  foundation  of  the  church.  Over  one  hundred 
years  of  struggle  had  already  elapsed.  Although  the  re- 
sults attained  seem  small — and  they  seem  now  still  smaller 
when  we  can  trace  the  course  of  the  Dutch  churches  in 
New  York,  the  Swedish  in  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware, 
and  the  German  in  Georgia,  which  was  yet  to  follow — 
nevertheless  we  may  readily  be  betrayed  into  an  underes- 
timate. The  period  which  now  begins  does  not  mark  the 
introduction  of  an  entirely  new  and  independent  element 
from  Germany  which  ignores  the  experience  of  the  pre- 
ceding century.  Whatever  advance  it  made  was  by  the 
proper  appreciation  of  the  lessons,  and  appropriation  of  the 
results,  of  the  former  era.  We  will  note  hereafter  the 
great  foresight  of  Muhlenberg  in  always  adhering  closely 
to  the  historical  line  of  development. 

But  this  did  not  conflict  with  the  introduction  of  new 
energy  and  spirit  into  the  work,  or  of  new  influences 
springing  from  a  wider  view  of  the  situation  and  a  more 
distinct  conception  of  the  importance  of  the  new  period 
that  was  approaching.  The  age  of  experiments  was  to 
give  way  to  that  of  a  more  distinct  eff"ort  for  complete  and 
permanent  organization.  Hitherto  there  had  been  little  con- 
ception of  the  relation  of  the  work  to  any  future  Lutheran 
Church    which    was    to    comprehend    members    scattered 

209 


2IO  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

throughout  the  entire  country.  The  Lutheran  pastors  felt 
themselves  called  simply  to  provide  for  the  spiritual  wants 
of  individual  souls,  and  only,  as  an  end  to  this,  to  look  to 
the  interests  of  congregations.  Whether  the  organizations 
they  fcjnded  were  to  long  survive  was  a  matter  with  which 
they  had  little  concern.  They  could  not  see  far  ahead  and 
did  not  trouble  themselves  about  it.  Some  may  have  been 
inclined  to  think  that  the  language  of  each  center  of  devel- 
opment would  be  preserved,  but  others  shrunk  from  con- 
templating the  consequences  of  a  change  which  they 
dreaded  would  be  fatal  to  the  Lutheran  faith.  The 
American  church's  independence  of  European  support 
could  scarcely  enter  their  minds  as  in  any  way  feasible. 
The  possibility  of  "  standing  alone,"  educating  and  support- 
ing their  own  pastors  and  administering  their  own  discip- 
line, is  a  problem  for  which,  even  at  present,  a  century  and 
a  half  of  additional  experience  has  not  provided  a  solution 
in  some  quarters.  It  was  felt  that  if  the  connection  with 
Sweden  or  Germany  were  broken,  the  ecclesiastical  con- 
nection must  be  with  England.  For  this  we  dare  not 
blame  them ;  their  eyes  were  closed,  since  God's  hour  for 
action  had  not  yet  come.  But  Muhlenberg  came  with  his 
favorite  motto,  Ecclcsia  plantanda.  It  was  not  simply 
congregations,  but  a  church,  which  he  had  in  mind ;  con- 
gregations had  been  planted,  but  a  church  was  to  be 
planted.  With  him  we  pass  from  the  period  of  mere  con- 
gregational to  that  of  synodical  organization. 

Born  of  a  noble  family  that  had  lost  its  titles  and  posses- 
sions by  the  vicissitudes  of  the  wars  of  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  on  September  6,  171 1,  at  Limbeck 
in  Hanover,  he  inherited  the  organizing  talent  of  the  North 
Germans,  and  the  dignified  and  courteous  bearing  of  the 
higher  classes,  which  a  humbler  lot  and  Christian  fellow- 
ship  with   the   lowliest   never   obscured.      His   pride   was 


AT  GOrriNGEN  AND  HALLE,  211 

checked  and  his  youth  disciplined  in  the  school  of  poverty. 
The  necessity  of  earning  a  Hvelihood  interrupted,  at  an 
early  age,  his  attendance  on  school,  but  could  not  suppress 
his  efforts  to  devote  all  his  leisure  hours  to  study.  At  an 
age  when  a  number  of  his  future  associates  were  already 
in  the  ministry  we  find  him  still  occupied  with  elementary 
studies,  and  forcing  his  way,  over  all  difficulties,  through 
a  full  course  of  thorough  preparation  for  the  ministry — for 
he  would  not  think  of  pleading  his  years  as  an  excuse  for 
abbreviating  it. 

Entering  in  1735  the  University  of  Gottingen,  among  its 
very  first  students  he  is  found,  the  succeeding  year,  mak- 
ing the  beginning  of  the  Gottingen  Orphan  House  by 
gathering  neglected  children  for  gratuitous  instruction  in 
the  elementary  branches.  He  had  become  a  zealous 
adherent  of  the  school  of  Spener,  and  had  gained  the 
friendship  and  support  of  several  influential  noblemen  of 
deep  religious  feeling,  Counts  Reuss  and  Henkel.  The 
theological  faculty  of  Gottingen  of  that  time  consisted 
of  J.  W.  Feuerlein,  M.  Crusius,  J.  Operin — in  whose  house 
Muhlenberg  lived — C.  A.  Heumann,  and  J.  F.  Gotta. ^ 
Completing  the  course  in  three  years,  he  spent  a  short  time 
at  the  University  of  Jena,  and  then  was  for  a  year  teacher 
in  the  Orphan  House  at  Halle,  where  he  was  selected  as  a 
missionary  for  India.  Although  his  heart  was  fixed  upon 
the  East  Indian  field,  the  authorities  were  unable  to  provide 
the  means  to  send  him,  and  in  August,  1 739,  he  accordingly 
accepted  a  call  to  Grosshennersdorf  in  Lusatia,  only  a  few 
miles  from  Zinzendorf's  center,  Herrnhut.  The  congrega- 
tion, which  had  two  pastors,  was  under  the  patronage  of 
the  Baroness  von  Gersdorf,  Zinzendorf's  aunt,  who,  how- 
ever, had  no  sympathy  with  the  methods  of  her  nephew. 
Besides  the  congregation,  there  was  an  Orphans'   Home, 

1  "Acta  Historica-Ecclesiastica,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  761. 


212  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

supported  by  the  generosity  of  the  baroness,  for  which  his 
services  were  required.  For  this  place  he  was  ordained 
at  Leipzig,  August  24,  1739,  his  ordination  certificate, 
signed  by  Drs.  Andrew  Wagner,  Gottfried  Lange,  S.  Dey- 
Hng,  and  C.  F.  Boerner,  containing  the  following  testimony 
to  his  confessional  position : 

In  agreement  with  apostolic  doctrine,  through  the  public  and  pious  rite, 
we  commended  to  him  the  ministry  of  teaching  the  gospel  and  administering 
the  sacraments,  according  to  the  call  and  rule  given  in  the  writings  of  the 
prophets  and  apostles,  the  sum  of  which  is  contained  in  the  three  symbols — 
the  Apostles',  Nicene,  and  Athanasian — in  the  Augsburg  Confession,  a.d. 
1530,  laid  before  Emperor  Charles  V.,  in  the  Apology  of  the  same,  in  Dr. 
Luther's  Large  and  Small  Catechisms,  in  the  articles  subscribed  in  the  Smal- 
cald  Convention  and  in  the  Formula  of  Concord,  written  A.D.  1576  on  contro- 
verted points  of  doctrine.  For  he  solemnly  promised  that  he  would  propose 
to  his  hearers  what  would  be  conformed  and  consentient  to  these  writings, 
and  that  he  would  never  depart  from  the  sense  they  give.l 

During  the  short  period  that  he  remained  at  Grosshenn- 
ersdorf  he  appeared,  for  the  only  time  in  his  life,  as  an 
author,  in  a  controversial  tract,  published  in  1741,  against 
Dr.  Balthasar  Mentzer,  general  superintendent  of  the 
Duchy  of  Callenberg,  and  grandson  of  a  Marburg  theolo- 
gian of  the  preceding  century,  who  bore  the  same  name. 
Dr.  Mentzer  had  written  a  book,  entitled  "  Words  of  Warn- 
ing," against  the  private  meetings  of  the  so-called  Pietists, 
which  Muhlenberg,  with  discrimination  and  soberness,  de- 
fended as  called  for  when  the  regularly  appointed  pastors 
are  negligent  concerning  the  spiritual  interests  of  those 
under  their  care. 2 

On  September  6,  i  741,  while  on  a  visit  to  Halle,  Francke 
asked  him,  at  supper,  whether  he  would  be  willing  to  accept 
a  call  to  America,  and  received  the  immediate  answer  that, 

1  Translation  of  certificate,  by  Dr.  W.  J.  Mann,  in  "  Lutheran  Church 
Review,"  vol.  vi.,  p.  28. 

'^  Besides  the  long  extracts  in  new  edition  of  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten," 
see  "Acta  Historica-Ecclesiastica,"  vol.  v.,  pp.  708-714. 


IN  ENGLAND.  213 

if  such  were  the  will  of  God,  he  would  certainly  go.  The 
arrangement  made  by  Francke  and  Ziegenhagen  was  that 
the  call  should  be  accepted  for  three  years,  and  the  neces- 
sary expenses  should  be  defrayed  from  the  proceeds  of  the 
collections  made  a  few  years  previously. 

On  his  way,  his  presence  at  his  former  home,  Eimbeck, 
where  he  preached  and  met  friends  for  religious  conversa- 
tion on  Sunday  evening,  resulted  in  his  being  summoned 
before  the  superintendent.  Both  before  him  and  before 
the  consistorium  at  Hanover  he  successfully  defended  him- 
self against  all  accusers.  Hanover  had  the  same  ruler  as 
Great  Britain  (George  H.).  The  approval  of  Muhlenberg 
by  the  consistorium  was  his  indorsement  by  the  ecclesi- 
astical authorities  of  the  king,  whose  German  subjects  in 
America  Muhlenberg  was  on  the  way  to  serve.  His  call 
came  not  merely  from  the  three  congregations,  but  was 
thus  supported  by  that  of  the  highest  civil  authority  in  the 
country,  and  therefore  there  was  no  intrusion  into  the  ter- 
ritory of  another.  He  could  assert  the  same  legal  right 
for  himself  and  those  acting  with  him  as  the  Church  of 
England  had.  This  explains  the  statement  which  Muhlen- 
berg afterward  made  that  "  the  English  laws  do  not  allow 
any  sect,  or  any  religious  party,  to  build  churches  except 
the  Episcopalians,  and  besides  them  the  Lutherans."^ 

He  did  not  feel  himself  competent  to  immediately  enter 
into  his  field  of  labor,  as  though  a  voyage  across  the  ocean 
were  all  that  were  needed  to  give  a  foreign  pastor  a  com- 
plete understanding  of  the  differences  between  the  field  he 
was  leaving  and  the  one  he  was  entering.  He  applied 
himself  to  the  thorough  understanding  of  his  new  relations 
by  spending  over   two   months   in   England,   engaged   in 

1  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  new  ed.,  p.  20.  A  note  of  the  editors  explains 
this  as  referring  to  erection  of  buildings  with  steeples  and  bells.  Meeting- 
houses for  other  denominations  were  not  prohibited. 


214  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

learning  the  English  language,  and  in  daily  intercourse 
with  the  pastors  of  the  London  Lutheran  churches.  The 
advantage  which  this  gave  him  in  dealing  with  the  English 
in  America  cannot  be  estimated. 

Almost  as  much  time  was  spent  on  the  ocean  as  in  England. 
The  voyage  lasted  fourteen  weeks  and  three  days.  It  was 
attended  by  many  trials,  the  most  serious  being  the  failure  of 
the  water,  and  the  great  distress  which  was  sufifered,  and  the 
imminent  danger  of  death  by  thirst.^  On  the  way  he  not 
only  preached  and  administered  the  communion  to  a  Salz- 
burg family  who  accompanied  them,  but  after  a  time  preached 
also  to  the  rest  in  his  very  imperfect  English,  and  read  the 
prayers  found  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  see  what  compromise  of  his  confessional  position 
could  be  found  in  this,  especially  when  no  other  liturgy 
was  at  hand,  and,  without  it,  he  could  not  have  served  to 
the  edification  of  the  audience.  Had  he  had  less  confi- 
dence in  the  correctness  of  his  position  as  a  Lutheran,  he 
might  have  been  more  scrupulous  in  using  prayers  whose 
Lutheran  character  cannot  be  readily  assailed  and  whose 
Lutheran  origin  can  be  readily  traced,  but  which  he  might 
have  foreseen  could  expose  him,  in  a  later  age,  to  criticism, 
as  being  unfaithful  to  his  principles.  The  spiritual  interests 
of  those  with  him  in  the  ship  outweighed  all  such  consid- 
erations. The  leisure  of  the  voyage  was  also  employed  in 
seeking  opportunities,  in  private  conversation,  to  bring  re- 
ligious subjects  to  the  attention  of  the  passengers. 

Reaching  Charleston,  S.  C,  September  24th,  and  met  by 

1  "  This  want  of  water  was  so  extreme  that  the  very  rats  suffered  from  it. 
It  had  been  noticed  that  some  of  them  had  gnawed  out  the  stopples  of  bot- 
tles containing  vinegar,  then  introduced  their  tails  into  the  liquid,  and  then 
sought  to  allay  their  thirst  by  drawing  their  tails  through  their  mouths. 
Others  would  mount  the  beds  at  night  and  lick  the  perspiration  off  the  brows 
of  the  people  who  were  asleep." — "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  new  ed.,  p.  12  ; 
English  translation,  p.  i8. 


IN  GEORGIA   AND    CAROLINA.  215 

Pastor  Gronau  at  Savannah,  he  reached  Ebenezer  October 
4th.  Eight  days  were  spent  in  famiharizing  himself  with 
the  work  of  Boltzius  and  Gronau,  as  already  described. 
He  entered  America  only  through  the  German  Lutheran 
Church  as  already  established  there,  even  though  it  was 
exceedingly  feeble  in  its  beginnings.  The  Salzburg  pas- 
tors were  greatly  refreshed  by  his  presence  and  the  ad- 
dresses which  he  made  at  their  devotional  meetings.  He 
partook  of  the  Lord's  Supper  with  them,  and  the  bless- 
ing of  the  Lord  upon  his  commission  formed  the  subject 
of  earnest  entreaty  in  public  prayer.  We  can  readily 
imagine  the  topics  which  occupied  them  in  their  confer- 
ences, viz.  :  the  progress  of  spirituality  in  the  church  in 
Germany ;  the  Orphan  House  at  Halle,  in  which  all  three 
pastors  had  been  teachers ;  the  best  methods  to  apply 
Lutheran  practices  to  a  congregational  life  independent  of 
state  control ;  the  best  methods  of  reaching  the  hearts  and 
consciences  of  the  people,  and  building  up  their  spiritual 
life ;  the  various  religious  bodies  arising  in  America ;  the 
career  of  Wesley ;  the  many  kindnesses  of  Whitefield,  his 
fervent  spirit  and  resistless  power  as  a  preacher ;  the  strange 
reports  that  were  arriving  concerning  the  proceedings  of 
Zinzendorf  in  Pennsylvania  and  the  possible  conflict  with 
him  before  the  work  to  which  Muhlenberg  was  called  could 
be  successfully  established. 

Pastor  Boltzius,  who  had  heretofore  declined  to  go  to 
Pennsylvania,  was  so  interested  in  his  guest  that  he  was 
persuaded  to  accompany  and  introduce  him  to  his  new  field. 
Muhlenberg  wished  to  make  prominent  to  the  people  in 
Pennsylvania  the  fact  of  his  close  connection  with  the 
Lutheran  Church  established  thus  far  in  the  country,  and 
that  it  was  nothing  more  than  an  extension  and  develop- 
ment of  it  in  another  colony  that  he  was  seeking.  The 
delay  to  find  a  vessel  at  Charleston  discouraged  the  Geor- 


2i6  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

gia  pastor,  and  after  a  stay  of  four  days  he  returned,  while 
Muhlenberg  had  to  spend  nearly  six  weeks  there,  until,  on 
November  i,  1742,  he  was  again  on  his  way.  The  voyage 
of  a  fortnight  from  Charleston  to  New  York  was  as  trying 
as  the  one  across  the  ocean.  The  proceedings  of  some  of 
Zinzendorf's  conferences  which  had  fallen  into  his  hands 
at  Charleston  made  him  the  more  anxious  to  be  on  the 
ground.  November  25  th  should  ever  be  celebrated  as  the 
anniversary  of  his  arrival  in  Philadelphia. 

There  were  none  in  Philadelphia  to  meet  and  welcome 
the  pastor  who  had  been  called  by  their  authority.  He 
came  as  an  entire  stranger,  and  had  to  make  a  place  for 
himself  where  others  occupied  it.  It  seems  that  the  letter 
of  1739,  on  the  part  of  the  three  congregations,  had  been 
answered  neither  from  London  nor  from  Halle.  No  word 
had  been  sent  in  advance  of  Muhlenberg's  commission.  A 
former  member  of  the  Salzburg  colony  was  the  channel 
through  which  his  presence  was  known  and  the  introduc- 
tion to  the  new  field  made.  Before  night  came  he  was 
making  his  way  toward  New  Hanover,  through  roads  in 
which  his  horse  repeatedly  sunk  in  mire  so  deep  that 
his  situation  was  perilous.  Impostors  had  intruded  into 
all  three  congregations.  With  determination,  but  with 
dignity  and  courtesy,  he  asserted  his  claims,  showing  his 
call  from  Ziegenhagen,  so  that,  without  any  violent  conflict, 
he  soon  became  full  master  of  the  field. 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  how  Muhlenberg's  beginning  in 
Philadelphia  followed  historical  lines.  Two  prominent  lay- 
men were  sought,  and  through  them  he  gained  a  hearing. 
One  was  Peter  Kock,  who  had  been  for  a  long  time  the 
best  known  among  the  Swedes,  and  the  father-in-law  of 
the  recently  deceased  and  greatly  lamented  pastor  of  Gloria 
Dei  Church.  The  other  was  Henry  Schleydorn,  who  had 
been  equally  active  in  the  Dutch  Church  of  New  York 


CONFLICT   WITH  ZINZENDORF.  21  J 

City,  and  had  been  one  of  the  officers  of  that  congregation 
signing  the  commission  to  the  Consistory  of  Amsterdam 
which  had  resulted  in  the  call  of  Berkenmeyer.  On  his 
first  Sunday  in  Philadelphia  he  preached  in  the  morning  in 
the  barn  or  carpenter's  shop  on  Arch  Street  and  in  Gloria 
Dei  Church,  where  Dylander  had  regularly  held  a  German 
service  in  the  afternoon.  It  was  not  called  an  installation, 
but  it  was  virtually  such,  when,  on  a  later  Sunday  after- 
noon, the  Swedish  pastor  from  Wilmington,  Rev.  Peter 
Tranberg,  demanded  of  Muhlenberg  his  credentials,  and, 
publicly  reading  the  call  from  Ziegenhagen,  the  ordination 
certificate,  the  diploma  from  Gottingen,  and  the  papers 
from  Providence  and  New  Hanover,  obtained  from  the 
officers  of  the  German  Church  of  Philadelphia  their  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  call.  Thus  the  Salzburgers,  the 
Dutch,  and  the  Swedes  united  in  establishing  Muhlenberg's 
position. 

Zinzendorf,  professing  still  to  be  pastor  of  the  original 
Lutheran  congregation  of  Philadelphia,  retained  the  church 
record,  and  surrendered  it  only  when  the  courts  compelled 
him.  The  interview  between  Zinzendorf  and  Muhlenberg 
(December  8th),  recorded  by  the  latter  in  his  autobiogra- 
phy,^ shows  in  clearest  light  the  traits  of  character  that 
distinguished  his  entire  career.  Courteous,  self-possessed, 
dignified,  determined,  candid,  he  reads  at  once  the  char- 
acter of  those  with  whom  he  has  to  deal,  and  with  the 
greatest  ease  and  promptness  has  at  hand  the  right  answer 
for  every  difficulty.  No  man,  however  numerous  his  titles 
or  great  his  distinction,  or  even  eminent  his  services  for 
Christ,  could  overawe  him.  In  this  case  the  circumstances 
were  peculiar,  because  of  Muhlenberg's  intimacy,  as  their 
former  pastor,  with  ZInzendorf's  near  relatives,  their  com- 
mon connection  with  Halle,  and  the  fact  that  such  a  con- 
1  Translated  in  Dr.  Mann's"  Life  and  Times  of  Muhlenberg,"  pp.  1 17-124. 


2l8  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xii. 

flict  was  probably  anticipated  from  the  time  he  was  called 
to  America,  and  certainly  was  in  prospect  ever  since  he 
had  read  at  Charleston  the  reports  from  Pennsylvania. 
But  the  situation  was  the  more  trying  because  when  Muh- 
lenberg proceeded,  unattended,  to  what  he  supposed  was 
to  be  a  private  conference,  he  found  himself  confronted  by 
all  the  formalities  of  a  trial,  and  directed  to  take  his  seat 
at  the  foot  of  a  table  which  was  surrounded  by  an  assem- 
blage of  adherents,  over  whom  the  count  presided,  and  whom 
the  count  called  '*  the  officers  of  the  Lutheran  congrega- 
tion." Under  such  provocation  he  had  to  make  answer 
before  this  "  inspector  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Pennsyl- 
vania" as  though  all  the  credentials  of  his  regular  appoint- 
ment amounted  to  nothing.  The  only  ground  afforded  for 
any  of  the  claims  of  the  count  was  that  the  neglect  and 
silence  of  the  authorities  in  London  and  Halle  for  so  many 
years  seemed  to  imply  a  desertion  of  the  field,  and  invali- 
dated the  authority  to  give  a  call  which  had  been  vested 
in  them  in  1733.  What  followed  is  thus  stated  by  Bishop 
Spangenberg : ^  ''The  newly  arrived  clergyman,  who  was 
an  able  and  talented  man,  soon  formed  a  party ;  whilst 
those  to  whom  the  count's  ministry  had  been  blessed 
adhered  to  him.  The  result  at  length  was  this :  the  count 
thought  it  best  to  let  the  preacher  above  mentioned  and 
his  subsequent  assistants  act  as  they  pleased,  being  satis- 
fied if  only  Christ  were  preached." 

Within  less  than  a  month  the  count  was  on  his  way  to 
England,  all  prospects  of  carrying  out  his  scheme^  in 
America  having  been  frustrated.  His  mission  had  not 
been  in  vain,  for  the  scattered  sheep  now  had  a  shepherd. 

1  Page  299. 

2  "  When  Muhlenberg  came  to  the  country  Count  Zinzendorf  was  in  a  fair 
way  to  bring  under  him  the  whole  German  population." — Acrelius,  p.  248. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

BEGINNING   THE    WORK. 

A  BARN  or  carpenter-shop  in  Philadelphia,  a  barn  at 
Providence  (The  Trappe),  a  partially  completed  church  at 
New  Hanover,  were  the  places  of  worship  of  Muhlenberg's 
three  congregations.  New  Hanover  was  thirty-six  miles 
from  Philadelphia  and  ten  from  Providence,  with  the  roads 
of  the  most  primitive  order. 

A  few  pounds  were  left  in  Muhlenberg's  hands  from  the 
amount  given  him  in  Europe  for  his  traveling  expenses. 
The  New  Hanover  congregation  provided  him  with  a  horse. 
The  Providence  people  gave  him  nothing  whatever,  while 
in  Philadelphia  his  salary  did  not  pay  his  house  rent ;  the 
excuse  being  made  in  both  these  places  that  the  privilege  of 
his  support  should  be  accorded  "  the  dear  fathers  in  Halle." 
In  the  face  of  this  he  abolished  fees  for  baptisms  and  contri- 
butions for  the  pastor  laid  on  the  altar  at  the  Lord's  Supper, 
thus  completely  sapping  the  sources  of  income  of  impostors, 
who  were  always  eager  for  such  opportunities,  and  most 
effectually  chilling  their  ardor  in  obtruding  themselves  upon 
congregations.  He  would  allow  no  collections  at  the  pub- 
lic services  for  the  pastor's  support,  since  they  were  apt  to 
be  misunderstood  and  abused.  Well  as  he  was  provided 
for  amidst  his  pastoral  duties  from  the  plenty  of  the  fertile 
farms  of  his  parishioners,  this  did  not  prevent  his  clothing 
from  wearing  out,  or  his  horses  from  succumbing  to  the 
fatigue  of  his  incessant  journeys.  Debts  for  the  simplest 
necessaries  of  life  grew  upon  him  with  alarming  rapidity. 

219 


2  20  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

But  he  knew  that  his  services  were  above  all  money  value. 
He  found  his  compensation  in  his  work  itself,  and  was  just 
as  sure  that  these  embarrassments  would  only  be  tempo- 
rary as  he  was  that  the  Lord  had  called  him  to  the  field. 

The  ignorance  of  the  young  moved  him  at  once  to  open 
a  school,  giving  in  each  congregation  successively  a  week 
of  instruction.  The  university  graduate  and  author  be- 
comes the  teacher ;  and  among  his  pupils,  '*  youths  of 
seventeen,  eighteen,  nineteen,  twenty  years  of  age  appear 
with  the  ABC  book."^  He  regarded  such  instruction 
preliminary  to  their  preparation  for  confirmation. 

In  New  Hanover  the  small  log  church  became  entirely 
inadequate  for  the  numbers  who  crowded  to  the  services, 
and  in  January  he  preached  one  Sunday  in  the  open  air. 

There  was  probably  at  first  an  effort  made  to  follow, 
in  some  respects,  the  model  of  the  Ebenezer  colony ;  but 
with  the  expansion  of  the  field  this  soon  became  impossible. 
He  felt  a  heavier  responsibility  resting  upon  him  than  that 
simply  of  the  three  congregations.  As  they  became  more 
thoroughly  organized,  the  care  of  the  other  Lutheran 
churches  in  Pennsylvania  he  believed  to  be  clearly  compre- 
hended in  his  commission,  and  showed  his  readiness  to 
respond  to  their  call  for  help.  The  first  of  these  congre- 
gations was  that  at  Germantown,  which  he  first  visited  in 
February,  1743,  and  to  which  he  preached  during  the 
week,  as  his  other  duties  allowed,  until  the  arrival  of 
Brunnholtz.  In  the  following  summer  he  was  called  to 
Tulpehocken  to  adjust  a  difficulty  that  had  rent  the  con- 
gregation into  three  factions,  and  where  Zinzendorf  had 
been  active.  By  his  recommendation  Rev.  Tobias  Wag- 
ner, grandson  of  a  former  chancellor  of  the  University  of 
Tubingen,  and  ancestor  of  a  future  provost  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania  (Professor  Stille),  who,  after  a  pastorate 
1  Mann's  "  Life  and  Times  of  Muhlenberg,"  p.  130. 


RE  IN  FOR  CEMENTS,  2  2 1 

at  Horkheim,  had  just  arrived  in  this  country,  became  pastor 
of  that  charge. 

The  erection  of  churches  occupied  a  large  portion  of  his 
time  and  energy  during  the  first  years  of  his  ministry.  In 
the  spring  of  i  743  cornerstones  were  laid  both  in  Philadel- 
phia and  at  The  Trappe.  The  latter  church  was  dedicated 
October  6,  1745,  and,  although  long  since  deserted  for 
purposes  of  worship,  still  stands,  the  object  of  veneration 
to  all  Lutherans  who  visit  the  locality,  and  a  most  sacred 
bequest  for  future  generations.  St.  Michael's  Church,  Phil- 
adelphia, was  not  completed  until  1 748.  The  church  at  New 
Hanover  was  completed  in  1 747.  At  Tulpehocken  Christ's 
Church  was  built  in  1743,  while  the  church  at  Germantown 
was  enlarged  in  1746.  Muhlenberg's  presence  seemed  to 
infuse  a  new  life  in  all  directions. 

It  was  at  once  seen  that  more  laborers  must  be  sent  to 
his  aid.  He  obtained  partial  relief  when  a  Mr.  J.  Y .  Vigera, 
a  former  Strassburg  merchant,  who  had  conducted  a 
"  transport"  of  Salzburgers  to  Ebenezer  in  1741,  and  who 
is  referred  to  with  the  highest  respect  in  the  reports  of 
Boltzius,  came  to  Pennsylvania  near  the  close  of  1743,  and 
entered  upon  the  duties  of  a  teacher,  first  at  New  Hanover, 
afterward  at  Providence,  and  still  later  at  Lancaster.  In 
the  absence  of  the  pastor  he  would  conduct  a  service  and 
read  a  sermon. 

On  January  26,  1745,  three  accessions  reached  Philadel- 
phia from  Halle — one  pastor  and  two  catechists.  The  pas- 
tor was  the  Rev.  Peter  Brunnholtz,  a  native  of  Holstein. 
His  call,  signed  by  Francke,  April  24,  1744,^  charged  him 
**  to  teach  the  Word  of  God  in  public  and  in  private,  pure 
and  incorrupt,  according  to  the  rule  and  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  and  also  of  the  symbolical  books  of  the 

1  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  new  ed.,  pp.  83  sqq.  ;  English  translation, 
pp.  122-125. 


222  THE   LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

Evangelical  Lutheran  Church."      Ordained  at  Wernigerode 
April  1 2th,  his  oath  contained  the  pledge: 

To  be  faithful  to  the  Word  of  God,  pure  and  incorrupt,  even  as  the  same 
is  contained,  according  to  the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  holy 
prophets  and  apostles,  and  also  as  it  is  concisely  repeated  and  distinctly  set 
forth  in  the  three  chief  symbols,  and  also  specifically  in  the  symbolical  books 
of  the  true  Lutheran  Church,  to  wit,  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession, 
its  Apology,  the  Smalcald  Articles,  the  two  catechisms  of  Luther,  and  the 
special  Formula  of  Concord,  all  drawn  with  great  diligence  out  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  prepared  in  direct  opposition  to  all  false  teachings,  and  that 
I  shall,  not  only  for  myself,  by  the  help  of  God,  abide  steadfast  in  the  same 
until  I  die,  but  also  labor  with  the  utmost  diligence  to  build  up  the  congrega- 
tions which  God  may  commit  to  my  care,  according  to  this  rule,  in  the  pure, 
true  faith,  and  in  Christian  love,  opposing,  with  all  my  might,  through  the 
grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  whatever  may  hinder  this  faith  and  love,  and  what- 
ever errors  might  work  harm  to  souls. 

The  two  catechists  were  John  Nicholas  Kurtz  and  John 
Helfrich  Schaum,  both  sons  of  parochial  schoolteachers  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Giessen,  and,  like  their  fathers,  inti- 
mate friends.  The  former  wrote  :  **  Ever  since  my  child- 
hood, my  dear  parents  strove  diligently  to  bring  me  up 
under  the  influence  of  prayer  and  of  the  fear  of  the  Lord." 
He  referred  with  gratitude  to  the  aid  that  he  had  received 
in  his  spiritual  life  from  the  instructions  of  Fresenius,  when 
the  latter  was  pastor  at  Giessen. i  Kurtz  had  followed 
Schaum  to  the  University  of  Halle,  and  both,  before  com- 
pleting the  course,  responded  to  the  call  for  laborers  for 
America.  Both  had  to  overcome  great  opposition  on  the 
part  of  their  parents,  who  finally,  only  with  great  reluct- 
ance and  distress,  yielded  to  the  firmness  of  their  sons* 
convictions  of  duty. 

As  in  Muhlenberg's  case,  the  trip  was  made  by  way  of 
England.  The  interest  awakened  by  the  reports  from 
Muhlenberg  as   they  were  published,   opened  streams  of 

1  "Autobiographical  Sketch,"  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  newed.,p.  137; 
English  translation,  p.  212. 


BAR  TWIG.  221 

liberality  to  such  an  extent  that  not  only  were  all  expenses 
of  the  journey  provided  for,  but  a  handsome  balance  re- 
mained to  be  devoted  to  the  building  of  the  new  churches. 

Brunnholtz  was  at  once  installed  by  Muhlenberg  in  all 
four  congregations  as  his  associate.  Before  dividing  the 
charge  it  was  deemed  best  for  the  new  pastor  to  learn  fully 
all  the  details  of  the  work  as  it  had  thus  far  progressed. 
This  division  was  made  in  June,  1745,  when  Brunnholtz 
gave  indications  of  breaking  down  from  the  fatigue  and 
exposure  of  the  long  and  constant  rides  needful  for  cover- 
ing the  entire  territory.  The  older  pastor,  who  had  only 
recently  been  married  to  the  daughter  of  the  distinguished 
Indian  agent,  Conrad  Weiser,  cheerfully  moved  from  Phil- 
adelphia, leaving  the  congregation  there  and  that  at  Ger- 
mantown  in  charge  of  Brunnholtz,  while  he  became  pastor 
at  New  Hanover  and  Providence,  with  his  home  at  the 
latter  place.  Kurtz  was  located  as  catechist  at  New  Han- 
over, and  Schaum,  in  Philadelphia.  For  twelve  years 
Brunnholtz  labored  manfully  against  the  infirmities  of  a 
frail  constitution,  with  the  deepest  sympathy  and  the 
warmest  love  of  his  older  colleague.  Kurtz  and  Schaum 
both  did  efficient  work  in  New  Jersey  under  Muhlenberg's 
supervision  during  the  distress  of  the  Raritan  congrega- 
tions ;  both  in  time  became  efficient  pastors,  and  the  names 
of  descendants  of  the  former  will  appear  on  these  pages 
among  the  more  prominent  pastors  and  leaders  of  later 
generations. 

A  few  years  later  (1748)  John  Frederick  Handschuh,  a 
pastor  thirty-four  years  of  age,  who  had  been  baptized  by 
August  Hermann  Francke  and  had  served  a  charge  for 
four  years  at  Graba,  was  called,  and  on  his  arrival  located 
at  Lancaster. 

A  pastor  long  associated  with  Muhlenberg,  although  not 
called  for  the  Pennsylvania  work  or  by  the  authorities  at 


2  24  ^'^^^   LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

Halle,  was  John  Christopher  Hartwig,  whose  name  survives 
in  Hartwick  Seminary  in  central  New  York,  partially  en- 
dowed with  funds  which  he  bequeathed.  Hartwig  was  a 
Thuringian,  born  in  17 14,  who  had  for  a  short  time  been 
connected  with  the  institution  of  Dr.  Callenberg  in  Ham- 
burg for  the  conversion  of  the  Jews.  He  was  called  in 
1745  to  the  pastorate  of  the  churches  along  the  Hudson, 
with  Rhinebeck  as  the  center,  and  was  ordained  for  the 
work  in  London  by  two  pastors  of  the  Savoy  Church  and 
the  pastor  of  the  Swedish  Church.  He  was  chaplain  of  a 
German  regiment  in  the  French  and  Indian  War.  He 
visited  Muhlenberg  in  i  747,  acted  for  a  time  as  a  substi- 
tute for  Brunnholtz  during  the  latter's  illness,  and  partici- 
pated in  the  arbitration  to  settle  the  difficulties  in  the 
Raritan  congregations,  as  well  as  in  the  organization  of  the 
Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  in  1 748.  He  was  a  life-long 
bachelor,  noted  for  his  eccentricities,  and  continued,  until 
the  close  of  his  life,  in  i  796,  his  attachments  and  visits  to 
the  descendants  of  Muhlenberg,  as  he  had  previously  been 
devoted  to  their  father.  Tradition  tells  that  the  domestics 
dreaded  his  appearance  because  of  the  excessively  long 
prayers  which  he  made  at  family  worship.  In  the  various 
difficulties  which  arose  in  his  congregations  and  with  his 
neighbors  Muhlenberg  was  always  his  trusted  adviser. 

With  the  pioneer  missionary,  Stoever,  Muhlenberg  had  no 
intimacy,  although  in  i  748,  at  the  intervention  of  Fresenius, 
writing  him  a  most  kind  letter  of  advice,  and  indicating 
the  way  by  which  he  might  labor  harmoniously  and  suc- 
cessfully with  the  other  pastors,  who  were  about  forming 
the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania.  F'ifteen  years  later  Mr. 
Stoever  entered  the  ministerium. 

Besides  the  difficulties  which  he  was  called  in  to  adjust 
in  the  Raritan  congregations  in  New  Jersey  and  the  Tul- 
pehocken  charge,  the  troubles  of  the  congregation  at  Lan- 


TROUBLES  AT  LANCASTER.  225 

caster  required  his  attention.  Before  Muhlenberg's  arrival, 
in  the  absence  oi  any  other  authorities  to  look  after  it  this 
congregation  had  put  itself  under  the  care  of  the  Church 
of  Sweden.  After  the  death  of  the  Swedish  pastor,  Dy- 
lander,  who  had  preached  regularly  to  the  Germans  of 
Lancaster,  a  formal  petition  for  a  Swedish  pastor  had  been 
presented  in  1741  to  the  King  of  Sweden,  and  a  Mr. 
Hedstrand  of  East  Gothland  was  appointed  and  ordained 
for  the  place,  but  could  not  enter  upon  the  field,  since  the 
expected  means  to  defray  his  traveling  expenses  never 
reached  Sweden.^  But  a  man  was  not  v,^anting  for  the 
place,  wdien  a  Mr.  L.  T.  Nyberg,  who  in  Sweden  had  heard 
of  the  vacancy,  introduced  himself  as  ready  to  become 
their  pastor.  It  was  not  known  at  the  time,  but  was  dis- 
covered afterward,  that  he  was  a  Moravian.  The  conflict 
was  a  violent  one,  and  rent  the  congregation.  Muhlenberg 
proceeded  thither  in  i  746,  asserted  the  rights  of  the  Lu- 
theran portion,  compelled  Nyberg  and  his  adherents  to 
withdraw  and  build  a  church  of  their  own,  and  had  the 
congregation  give  the  officials  at  Halle  and  London  the 
same  authority  as  had  been  given  by  the  three  congrega- 
tions when  he  had  been  called.  The  result,  as  above  seen, 
was  the  coming  of  Handschuh. 

An  example  of  one  of  Muhlenberg's  missionary  journeys 
may  be  appropriately  introduced.  \\\  June,  I  747,  before 
the  arrival  of  Pastor  Handschuh,  Muhlenberg  visited  Lan- 
caster on  his  way  to  Maryland.  Throughout  this  entire 
trip,  which  extended  to  Monocacy,  near  Frederick,  Md., 
he  met  constantly  the  traces  of  Nyberg's  influence,  and 
was  compelled  to  vigorously  assail  them.  One  Sunday  he 
preached  at  Tulpehocken  ;  the  next  (21st),  at  Lancaster. 
On  Monday  he  found  at  Hanover,  York  County,  the  same 
church  conflict.     The  next  day  he  preached   in   a   large 

1  Acrelius,  p.  241. 


2  26  THE   LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

barn  to  a  crowd  of  people  assembled  from  far  and  near, 
and  baptized  children,  but  declined  to  administer  the  Lord's 
Supper.  He  and  his  companions  rode  until  night  overtook 
them.  A  storm  arose.  The  rain  fell  in  torrents.  The 
road  was  seen  only  by  the  frequent  flashes  of  lightning. 
After  a  ride  of  thirty-six  miles,  through  streams  and  mud, 
half  dead  they  reached  their  destination  at  two  o'clock  in 
the  morning.  What  was  the  goal  ?  A  small  "  frame 
church,  and  two  parties  in  the  congregation.  "^ 

Notwithstanding  the  heavy  rain  of  the  next  day,  that 
church  contained  an  audience.      Muhlenberg  says : 

Before  we  began  the  service  I  had  them  give  me  the  church  book,  and  I 
wrote  in  it,  in  the  Enghsh  language,  several  articles,  among  others  that  our 
German  Lutherans  confess  the  holy  Word  of  God  in  the  prophetic  and  apos- 
tolic Scriptures,  and  besides  the  Augsburg  Confession  the  other  symbolical 
books  ;  and,  where  it  can  be  done,  they  have  the  sacraments  administered 
to  them  by  regularly  called  and  ordained  ministers,  and,  according  to  their 
rules,  do  not  allow  open,  gross,  and  persistent  offenders  against  the  Ten 
Commandments  and  the  civil  laws  to  be  regarded  as  members,  etc.  This  I 
read  publicly  to  the  congregation,  and  explained  it  in  German,  and  added 
that  he  who  would  be  and  would  remain  such  a  Lutheran  should  subscribe 
his  name. 

He  continues  to  relate  how  while  the  Lutherans  sub- 
scribed, those  who  had  been  under  Moravian  influence 
hesitated,  until  after  a  penitential  service,  in  which  Muhl- 
enberg preached,  they  expressed  their  willingness  to  add 
their  narnes  provided  he  would  become  their  pastor.  The 
evidences  of  penitence  were  such  that  he  did  not  feel  justi- 
fied in  refusing  the  Lord's  Supper  to  all  ready  to  unite  in 
the  subscription.  He  explains  at  length  in  his  account  his 
reasons  for  insisting  upon  this.  It  would  avoid  endless 
trouble  in  the  future  if  the  courts  would  have  the  confes- 
sional position  thus  clearly  stated  in  the  English  language.'-^ 
Nevertheless,  he  acknowledges  that  it  was  hard  to  decide 

1  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  old  ed.,  p.  234;   new  ed.,  p.  352. 

2  Ibid.,  new  ed.,  p.  354. 


CONFESSION  BEFORE   COMMUNION.  22^ 

on  which  side  of  the  controversy  the  greater  justice  lay. 
The  greater  part  of  those  on  the  Lutheran  side,  he  feared, 
was  composed  of  unconverted  men,  while  the  faith  of  the 
Moravian  party  ''  rested  more  upon  deceptive  fancies  and 
sensuous  emotions,  and  not  upon  the  alone  saving  words 
of  the  prophets  and  apostles,  in  which  Jesus  is  the  corner- 
stone." But  "  the  Lutherans  have  the  Bible  and  the  cate- 
chism, and  this  excites  the  hope  that,  in  time,  the  Word 
will  come  to  them  with  saving  power."  ^ 

The  next  day  he  was  at  Frederick,  preaching  to  a  large 
audience  of  Germans  and  English,  and  administering  bap- 
tism and  the  Lord's  Supper.  On  his  return  journey  he 
had  a  long  conversation  with  an  English  gentleman  who 
contrasted  the  apparently  holy  life  and  earnest  devotion 
of  the  Moravians  w-ith  the  shameful  life  of  a  pretended 
Lutheran  preacher,  by  the  name  of  Carl  Rudolph,  who 
imposed  on  German  emigrants  in  almost  all  their  settle- 
ments, beginning  in  Georgia  and  ending  in  New  York. 
Muhlenberg  explained  that  he  had  no  hatred  to  the  per- 
sons, but  that  he  abhorred  the  methods  of  these  oppo- 
nents, and  that  Zinzendorf's  principles,  if  consistently 
adhered  to,  would  compel  him  in  Russia  to  adhere  to  the 
Greek  Church,  in  Catholic  countries  to  be  submissive  to 
the  pope,  among  the  Swass  to  adopt  the  propositions  of 
Berne,  in  England  to  subscribe  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles, 
and  in  Sweden  to  shield  himself  behind  the  Augsburg 
Confession.  The  statement  of  these  details  is  necessary 
for  a  correct  presentation  of  the  nature  of  Muhlenberg's 
work  and  an  understanding  of  its  manifold  relations. 

Arriving  at  York  about  noon  on  Saturday,  he  began  the 
preparation  for  the  Holy  Supper  on  the  next  day  by  a 
searching  examination  of  those  who  purposed  to  commune, 
beginning  with  the  parochial  schoolteacher  and  the  elders 

1  Ibid.,  p.  354  sq. 


22S  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

of  the  church.  At  four  o'clock  preparatory  service  was 
held.  He  preached  on  Matthew  xi.  8  sqq.  "The  people 
drank  the  Word  as  the  dry  earth  does  a  summer  shower." 
Then  he  met  the  young  people  whom  the  teacher  had 
prepared  for  confirmation,  and  examined,  instructed,  and 
exhorted  them.  After  this  he  had  a  private  interview  with 
some  who  had  been  awakened  by  his  sermon.  Early 
Sunday  morning  he  had  private  confession  with  a  number 
from  a  distance,  and  another  public  confession  before  the 
regular  service.  Fully  half  the  audience  had  to  stand 
outside  of  the  church.  A  number  of  children  were  bap- 
tized, fifteen  were  confirmed,  and  two  hundred  persons 
received  the  Lord's  Supper.  Early  on  Monday  morning 
he  held  a  service  of  prayer  with  the  members  of  the  con- 
gregation in  the  town,  and,  bidding  them  farewell,  pro- 
ceeded on  his  wayr 

The  inner  side  of  the  pastoral  work  of  Muhlenberg,  as 
recorded  in  the  Halle  **  Reports,"  well  repays  careful  and 
frequent  reading.  They  afford  most  instructive  examples 
in  pastoral  theology,  that  are  as  valuable  for  their  sugges- 
tions as  any  theoretical  treatise  on  the  subject.  The  inter- 
est of  the  friends  of  the  Halle  missions  was  maintained  by 
the  full  accounts  which  their  missionaries,  both  in  the  East 
Indies  and  in  America,  transmitted  to  them  concerning  the 
traces  of  the  blessing  of  God  upon  the  Word  as  adminis- 
tered through  the  missions.  The  triumphs  of  God's  grace 
in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  the  evidence  of  this  in  the  life, 
were  the  subjects  of  their  most  frequent  and  earnest  con- 
sideration. The  danger,  of  course,  was  ever  present  of 
laying  an  excessive  importance  upon  visible  results,  and  of 
losing  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  the  Word,  even  when  no  such 
tokens  could  claim  attention.  But  with  this  caution  in 
mind,  the  accounts  given  must  repeat  in  every  age  the 
gratitude    which,    when    first    published,    they    awakened 


PASTORAL   EXPERIENCES.  22g 

among  the  adherents  of  Halle.  There  are  scores,  if  not 
hundreds,  of  such  examples,  as  they  form  a  very  large 
portion  of  the  Halle  "  Reports."  We  note  a  few  belong- 
ing to  this  earlier  period. 

One  is  that  of  a  man  in  Philadelphia  who,  impoverished 
by  drunkenness  and  gambling,  was  compelled  to  emigrate. 
Well  instructed  in  religion,  his  profanity  was  freely  ex- 
pended upon  those  who  were  thought  to  err  from  the 
Lutheran  doctrine.  Even  Muhlenberg  fell  under  his  sus- 
picions because  his  sermons  did  not  bristle  with  polemics. 
At  last  a  lingering  illness  seized  him.  He  realized  the 
guilt  of  his  sinful  life  and  his  entire  corruption.  The  Word 
as  taught  him  by  the  pastor  brought  him  peace,  and  he 
departed  with  hymns  of  praise  upon  his  lips.  "  God,"  as 
we  hope,  *'  delivered  this  poor  sinner  as  a  brand  from  the 
burning;    his  holy  name  be  praised!"^ 

Another  is  that  of  a  godly  widow  of  a  husband  who 
had  been  indifferent  to  the  spiritual  interests  of  his  chil- 
dren. The  sons  foUow^ed  the  course  of  the  father ;  the 
daughters,  that  of  the  mother.  The  sons  reviled  the 
Word  of  God,  while  the  mother  and  sisters  were  most 
regular  in  attendance  and  devout  in  worship.  With  tears 
the  widow  repeatedly  sought  the  consolation  of  the  pas- 
tor. God  soon  delivered  her  from  her  sorrow,  after  re- 
ceiving the  Lord's  Supper  and  sending  her  thanks  to  the 
fathers  in  Halle  for  their  interest  in  neglected  souls  in 
America. 

A  godly  couple  in  Philadelphia,  before  Muhlenberg's 
arrival  and  regular  German  services  could  be  held,  had  felt 
deeply  their  destitution.  The  husband  learned  Swedish, 
in  order  that  he  might  be  edified  by  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel  in  the  Lutheran  Church ;  but  the  wife  had  been 
unable  to  make  the  same  progress,  faithfully  as  she  had 

*  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  old  ed.,  pp.  149-151. 


230  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiit. 

tried.  The  prayers  and  hymns  committed  to  memory  in 
her  childhood  had  been  her  greatest  comfort. 

A  boy,  ten  years  of  age,  at  New  Hanover,  was  suddenly 
taken  ill.  He  called  for  his  Testament,  and,  turning  to 
John  iii.  i6,  read  it  several  times,  and  added:  "Dear 
mother,  with  this  text  I  will  go  to  heaven." 

Another  child,  six  years  old,  was  ill.  Before  dying,  he 
said,  with  surprising  maturity  of  mind,  to  his  father:  "I 
am  going  from  this  wicked  world  to  heaven,  where  my 
dear  Redeemer  Jesus  Christ  and  all  the  holy  angels  dwell ; 
there  I  will  eternally  praise  my  God,  who  has  created, 
redeemed,  and  sanctified  me."  He  sank  to  rest  as  his 
father  sang  a  favorite  hymn. 

No  more  interesting  example  is  given  than  that  of  the 
venerable  father  of  Conrad  Weiser,  the  grandfather  of  Mrs. 
Muhlenberg,  one  of  Kocherthal's  flock.  At  a  great  age 
he  journeyed  to  visit  his  relatives,  and  to  converse  on  re- 
ligious matters.  So  feeble  was  he  that  for  twenty-four 
hours  after  his  arrival  he  was  compelled  to  absolutely  rest. 
The  knowledge  of  Scripture  and  the  verses  of  hymns  he 
repeated  astonished  his  spiritual  adviser,  so  that  he  adds 
to  the  account  the  remark : 

Oh,  how  well  it  is  when,  during  youth,  a  treasure  has  been  gathered  from 
the  living  Word  of  God!  Even  though  when,  because  of  many  hindrances, 
it  does  not  immediately  bring  forth  fruit,  nevertheless  God  remains  faithful, 
and  does  everything  in  his  time.  I  have  seen  in  this  soul  a  beautiful  ex- 
ample of  how  the  Spirit  of  God  and  the  Word  are  united.  It  is  a  true  joy 
to  see  the  old  Evangelical  Lutheran  truths  living  in  a  soul.  But  how  sad  it 
is  when  men,  from  a  love  for  novelty,  tread  upon  these  venerable  and  pre- 
cious treasures  with  their  feet,  and  make  new  sects,  which,  while  according 
to  the  outward  shell  they  appear  somewhat  more  polished  than  it  is  in  the 
old  way,  nevertheless,  so  far  as  the  kernel  is  concerned,  the  two  are  not 
worthy  of  being  compared. l 

The  searching  character  of  his  examinations  as  a  faithful 
physician  of  .souls  may  be  learned  from  the  following : 

1  "  Hallesche  Nachi-ichten,"  old  ed.,  p.  162  sq.  ;  new  ed.,  pp.  244  sqq. 


PASTORAL   EXPERIENCES.  23  I 

There  was  in  New  Hanover  a  venerable  married  couple  who  belonged  to 
the  congregation.  Their  temperament  was  altogether  melancholy,  and  they 
were  devoted  to  the  riches  of  this  world  and  the  cares  of  their  bodily  support. 
This  had  become  such  a  habit  that  all  our  pains  and  labor  seemed  in  vain. 
With  all  this,  they  were  outwardly  honorable,  strict  and  accurate  in  their 
transactions  and  life,  unwearied  in  their  attendance  upon  divine  service,  and 
never  omitted  morning  and  evening  prayers.  1  think  that  such  temperament 
is  the  most  apt  of  all  to  give  the  appearance  of  godliness  and  to  deny  its 
power.  When  the  point  at  which  their  hearts  were  sick  was  touched,  they 
were  ready  with  numberless  answers,  some  from  God's  Word,  and  others 
from  reason,  and  generally  appealed  to  God,  the  Searcher  of  hearts.  I  and 
my  assistant,  Mr.  Kurtz,  have,  at  various  times,  in  love  and  earnestness,  de- 
clared to  them  the  necessary  truths.  In  all  important  articles  of  faith  they 
agreed  with  us,  and  when  it  came  to  the  trial  and  appropriation  of  these 
articles,  they  have  already  experienced  much,  and  promised  that,  by  God's 
grace,  they  would  apply  the  rest  also  to  practice.  If  we  look  to  the  marks 
which  in  renewal  must  necessarily  follow  repentance  and  faith,  they  are 
sometimes  very  deficient.  According  to  their  confession,  they  are  nothing 
but  poor  penitents,  but  who  as  sinners  have  been  pardoned  and  justified 
through  Christ ;  and  yet  it  would  be  more  consolatory  to  us  if  we  could  have 
perceived  in  them  more  and  plainer  marks  of  a  thorough  change  of  heart  and 
conversion.! 

The  labors  of  Muhlenberg  and  his  associates  were  not 
confined  to  those  who  came  from  Lutheran  ancestry.  It 
was  not  an  uncommon  thing  for  them  to  report  the  baptism 
of  those  who  had  been  born  and  raised  as  Quakers,  or  of 
those  whose  parents  were  Reformed.-  Even  the  negroes 
received  their  careful  attention  when  an  opportunity  to 
instruct  them  was  offered.^  Everywhere  their  preaching 
awakened  interest,  and  drew  large  audiences.  '*  They 
come,"  writes  Muhlenberg,  ''from  near  and  from  far;  in 
summer  they  dread  no  heat ;  in  winter,  no  rough  roads 
and  weather."*  The  results  were  the  same  as  in  the  par- 
able of  the  sower.  A  most  affecting  incident  is  that  at 
Chester  (March  15,  1745),  where  the  Germans,  "mostly 
servants,"  in  their  joy  at  hearing  once  more  a  sermon 
and   participating  in  a  service,  *'  crowded   about  me  like 

1  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  old  ed,,  p.  167. 

2  Jbid.,  p.  i2>-  ^  I^id'^  P-  47-  ^  ^^'^'^-^  P-  1^5- 


2  32  THE   LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

children  or  fainting  sheep  who  have  no  shepherd,  and 
wept." 

"  In  Germany  it  is  regarded  a  matter  of  no  moment  if 
one,  two,  or  three  sermons  be  heard  every  Sunday  ;  here 
many  rejoice  if  they  hear  a  sermon  once  a  year.  These 
people  in  Chester,  in  six  years,  have  been  unable  to  hear 
any  German  Evangelical  preaching."^ 

During  the  earlier  years  of  his  ministry  two  communions 
a  year  were  held  in  each  congregation.  The  week  pre- 
ceding, every  one  desiring  to  commune  was  expected  to 
go  to  the  pastor's  house,  or  to  the  schoolhouse,  and  confer 
with  him.  If  any  necessity  so  advised,  the  pastor  would 
instruct  or  advise  or  reprove  the  communicant,  according 
to  the  circumstances.  On  Satuday  evening  the  prepara- 
tory service  was  held,  and  the  sermon  had  especial  refer- 
ence to  the  circumstances  which  the  pastor  had  learned  in 
his  private  conferences  with  his  people  during  the  week. 
Then  the  communicants  passed  in  line  before  the  altar. 
When  any  one  who  had  been  guilty  of  a  public  offense 
approached,  the  pastor  arrested  the  progress  for  a  few 
moments  while  public  confession  of  the  wrong  was  made, 
and  admonition  to  repentance,  the  sacred  promise,  the 
prayers  of  the  congregation  for  God's  forgiveness,  and  the 
personal  forgiveness  of  all  the  members  followed.  Then 
came  the  public  confession  and  absolution.-  After  the 
service  those  who  had  had  differences  with  one  another 
repaired  to  the  parsonage  and  were  reconciled. ^ 

While  the  communion  was  being  administered  either  a 
hymn  was  sung,  or  the  Passion  history  or  the  prayers  ap- 
propriate to  the  sacrament  from  John  Arndt's  devotional 
book,  *'The  Garden  of  Paradise,"  were  read.^ 

At  funerals  the  desire  of  the  people  to  have  a  regular 

1  "  Hallesdie  Nachrichten,"  old  ed.,  ]\  58. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  183  sq.  a  Ibid.  ^  Ibid. 


PASTORAL   FIDELITY.  233 

sermon  preached  was  gladly  complied  with,  as  giving  an 
opportunity  to  reach  a  large  audience  that  otherwise  was 
inaccessible.  Weddings  were  also  preceded  by  a  sermon, 
but  were  too  apt  to  end  in  a  carousal.  The  hymns  of  the 
pastors  were  sometimes  not  well  received  by  the  careless 
crowd  that  thronged  such  scenes,  often  uninvited ;  but  the 
dancers  were  apt  to  feel  the  force  of  the  discipline  of  the 
church  should  they  afterward  desire  to  partake  of  the  com- 
munion.^ 

There  were  no  Sunday-schools  in  those  days  ;  but,  when 
the  pastor  was  available,  Sunday  afternoon  was  not  unoc- 
cupied. The  KinderleJire,  or  *'  Children's  Instruction," 
was  faithfully  employed  by  Brunnholtz,  whose  infirmity 
kept  him  more  closely  to  his  parish  than  Muhlenberg,  the 
younger  being  instructed  in  the  Small  Catechism,  and  the 
older  and  the  servants  in  the  ''  Order  of  Salvation  "  and 
Bible  history.-  Such  instruction  he  found  more  directly 
reached  the  people,  and  made  a  more  permanent  impres- 
sion, than  his  sermons.^ 

The  great  anxiety  of  the  pastors  to  find  proofs  of  the 
efTects  of  the  Word  in  the  lives  of  their  hearers  undoubt- 
edly colors  some  of  their  complaints  of  the  prevalent  dead- 
ness.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  Brunnholtz,  as  he 
continued  his  pastoral  work  amidst  distressing  physical 
infirmities.  Such  statements  as  that  *'  the  people  are 
mostly  blind  and  dead,"  and  without  the  experience  of  a 
change  of  heart,  ought  not  to  be  received  as  historical  facts 
without  great  discrimination.  Even  a  great  prophet  erred 
when  under  the  juniper  tree,  and  in  the  cave  he  despaired 
of  the  efficacy  of  the  Word  (i  Kings  xix.  5,  10).  Those 
congregations  were  neither  models  of  the  higher  form  of 
Christian  earnestness,  nor  extraordinary  examples  of  indif- 
ference to  religion.      The  seed  was  growing  in  secret  in 

1  Ibid.,  p.  182.  2  Jl)id.,  p.  125.  3  Ibid.,  p.  624. 


234  ^'^^^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

many  a  heart,  where  the  Lord  kept  its  fruits  concealed 
from  the  eyes  of  his  too  inquisitive  servants. 

Emigration  meanwhile  was  constantly  changing  the 
persons  to  whom  the  pastors  ministered.  The  current  from 
Germany  was  flowing,  for  those  days  of  inconvenient 
transport,  with  astonishing  rapidity.  In  1749,  12,000 
German  emigrants  landed  in  Philadelphia.  The  older 
settlements  were  constantly  being  deserted  by  the  more 
enterprising  of  those  who,  by  their  thrift,  had  accumulated 
something,  for  the  more  promising  frontier,  and  their  places 
were  taken  by  fresh  arrivals  from  Germany.  Muhlenberg 
refers  to  this  as  very  noticeable  on  his  repeated  visits  to 
communities  beyond  his  own  parish. 

There  was  much  ignorance  and  stupidity  among  them ; 
but  this  was  by  no  means  the  general  character  of  the 
population.  The  fifty  kinds  of  hymn-books  which  Muhl- 
enberg mentions  as  being  brought  by  them  to  the  services 
show  how  devoutly  they  had  clung  to  their  religious  books. 
In  many  a  home  the  ponderous  family  Bible  was  one  of 
the  chief  articles  of  furniture.  Unlike  its  gilded  successor, 
it  was  most  faithfully  used.  Its  long  introductions  and 
ample  notes  and  indexes  gave  more  apparatus  than  a 
*' Teacher's  Bible"  of  to-day.  But  beyond  this,  it  was 
often  replete  with  doctrinal  comments,  practical  applications 
of  the  texts,  devout  prayers,  with  perhaps  the  Augsburg 
Confession  and  other  theological  material.  The  reading 
of  such  literature  on  Sundays  trained  at  least  some  of 
the  Lutheran  people  into  an  acquaintance  with  Scripture 
which  would  have  compared  most  favorably  with  that  of 
the  ministry  in  a  later  period.  Many  of  such  books  are 
still  treasured  as  precious  heir-looms  in  the  homes  of  their 
descendants. 

Such  people  impressed  their  character  upon  the  very 
soil   they   cultivated.      "  Wherever,"    says  McMaster,    *'  a 


THE   REDEMPriONERS.  235 

German  farmer  lived,  there  were  industry,  order,  and  thrift. 
The  size  of  the  barns,  the  height  of  the  fences,  the  well- 
kept  wheat-fields  and  orchards,  marked  off  the  domain  of 
such  farmer  from  the  lands  of  his  shiftless  Irish  neigh- 
bors."^ "They  were,"  says  another  American  writer, 
**  an  industrious,  frugal,  temperate  people,  tilling  their 
farms,  accustomed  to  conflict  with  savage  and  other  ene- 
mies on  the  border,  and  distinguished  for  their  bold  and 
independent  spirit."  - 

Not  all  entered  the  country  with  equal  advantages. 
The  poorer  classes,  unable  to  pay  their  passage,  and  fleeing 
from  oppression  and  starvation  at  home,  sold  themselves 
for  a  term  of  years  into  slavery.  This  was  not  peculiar  to 
the  Germans,  but  comprehended  all  nationalities.  Nor 
was  the  lot  of  a  "  redemptioner  "  in  all  cases  a  sad  one. 
In  Maryland  the  laws  early  protected  them,  limiting  the 
days  of  work  in  summer  to  five  and  a  half,  and  demanding 
for  them  three  hours  of  rest  in  the  middle  of  the  day  during 
the  months  of  greatest  heat.  Some  of  the  most  honored 
names  in  American  history  are  those  of  "  redemptioners." 
Among  them  are  those  of  Charles  Thomson,  the  secretary 
of  Congress  during  the  Revolution,  Matthew  Thornton,  a 
signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the  parents 
of  Major-General  Sullivan.^ 

But  in  Pennsylvania,  where  this  institution  began  to  be 
common  from  about  1 740,  and  continued  through  nearly 
two  decades  of  the  present  century,  it  involved  often  the 
greatest  hardships.  Germans  were  decoyed  from  their 
homes  by  conscienceless  agents,  "  the  Newlanders,"  as 
Muhlenberg  terms  them,  who,  by  fabulous  stories  of  the 
wealth  to  be  acquired  and  the  easy  terms  by  which  passage 

1  "  History,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  556. 

2  Scharf's  "  History  of  Maryland,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  423. 

3  Ibid,,  vol.  i.,  p.  372  sq. 


236  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiii. 

could  be  secured,  enticed  unsuspecting  emigrants  into  tlie 
signing  of  papers  in  an  unknown  language,  not  only  com- 
mitting them  and  their  children  to  slavery,  but  sometimes 
separating  husband  and  wife,  parents  and  children.  When 
the  yellow-fever  prevailed  in  Chester  in  1793,  a  cargo  of 
such  '*  redemptioners  "  was  sent  thither,  and  a  market  for 
nurses  opened.^  A  most  graphic  description  of  the  horrors 
of  this  *'  white  slavery,"  by  an  organist  of  the  church  at 
Providence,  is  given  in  Professor  Seidensticker's  '*  History 
of  the  German  Society  of  Philadelphia."^  Muhlenberg 
opposed  it  with  all  his  might.  His  letters  to  Halle  expose 
at  length  the  imposition  practiced,  warn  all  who  are  in 
danger  of  being  misled,  and  excite  indignation  at  the  re- 
lation of  the  cruelties  with  which,  in  his  experience  as  a 
pastor,  he  had  become  so  well  acquainted. ^ 

1  McMaster,  vol.  ii.  2  Pages  22-24. 

3  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  old  ed.,  pp.  997-1000;  1047  sqq. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

PROJECTS   OF   CHURCH    ORGANIZATION. 

As  the  congregations  and  pastors  increased,  it  became 
manifest  that  some  form  of  organization  uniting  them  more 
closely  than  by  their  common  dependence  on  Halle  was 
necessary.  The  common  faith,  common  dangers,  and 
common  wants  of  the  Swedish  and  the  German  congrega- 
tions elevated  the  first  attempts  above  all  the  considerations 
of  language.  The  vacancy  in  the  Swedish  congregation  in 
Philadelphia  had  continued  for  two  years,  until  in  1743 
Rev.  Gabriel  Naesman  succeeded  the  greatly  lamented 
Dylander.  On  his  arrival  he  found  that  the  congregations 
at  both  Philadelphia  and  Kingsessing  had  suffered  greatly. 
Many  had  been  attracted  by  the  preaching  of  Whitefield ; 
still  more  had  been  confused  by  the  persistent  efforts  of 
Zinzendorf  The  Swedish  churches  had  been  as  much 
exposed  as  the  German  to  the  encroachments  of  Mora- 
vianism,  especially  through  a  Paul  D.  Brycelius,  who  had 
accompanied  Zinzendorf  from  Europe  and  been  ordained 
by  David  Nitzschmann,  and  who  availed  himself  of  the 
vacancy  to  draw  away  as  many  of  the  Swedes  as  possible. 
Brycelius  was  destined  in  the  future  to  undergo  two 
ecclesiastical  changes.  In  i  760  the  Ministerium  of  Penn- 
sylvania received  him,  on  his  renunciation  of  Moravianism  ; 
while  in  1767  he  was  ordained  an  Episcopalian  in  England, 
and  sent  as  missionary  to  Nova  Scotia.  Besides  detaching 
a  great  many  members  for  the  Moravians,  he  had  been  the 
indirect  cause  of  leading  others,  tired  of  the  confusion,  into 

237 


238  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiv. 

the  English  Church.  Mr.  Naesman  was  not  equal  to  the 
situation.  He  was  unable  to  adapt  himself  to  the  circum- 
stances. His  efforts  were  well  meant,  but  they  suggested 
the  scholastic  rather  than  the  pastor.  His  long  and 
minute  regulations  he  repeatedly  read  to  the  people  ex- 
cited no  interest  and  little  attention.  When  his  sermons, 
preached  at  the  second  service  on  Sundays  in  imperfect 
English,  would  no  longer  command  a  sufficient  audience, 
he  attempted  the  French,  with  no  better  success. 

The  two  prominent  laymen  and  intimate  friends,  Peter 
Kock  of  the  Swedish  and  Henry  Schleydorn  of  the  Ger- 
man Church,  projected  the.  plan  of  uniting  the  congrega- 
tions using  these  languages  in.to  one  body.  They  beheved 
that  if  the  two  elements  could  be  united  into  a  German- 
Swedish  synod,  they  would  be  able  much  more  readily  to 
recover  from  the  effects  of  the  Moravian  influence,  and  to 
protect  themselves  from  the  entrance  and  attacks  of  unde- 
serving men.  They  succeeded  in  having  a  conference  of 
representatives  of  both  sides  held  in  Gloria  Dei  Church  in 
May,  1744.  Nyberg  insisted  upon  including  the  Mora- 
vians because  of  their  subscription  to  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession, which  Muhlenberg  firmly  opposed.  Naesman  de- 
clared that  both  were  incompetent  to  decide  the  question. 
Then  when  the  question  of  church  usages  came  up, 
Naesman  insisted  that  the  order  of  the  Swedish  Church 
must  be  binding  on  the  Germans,  because  the  Swedes  had 
come  to  this  country  first.  This,  of  course,  was  imprac- 
ticable. The  Swedish  liturgy  was  too  elaborate  for  the 
Southern  Germans,  and  the  intoning  of  the  collects  was 
esteemed  by  them  as  a  mark  of  a  Romanizing  tendency. 
Neither  the  Swedes  nor  the  Germans  were  prepared  to 
break  their  connection  with  the  church  at  home.  The 
German  congregations  could  not  be  changed  into  Swedish. 
The  Swedes  also  feared  being  outvoted  by  the  Germans. 


LAV  EFFORTS  FOR    ORGANIZATION.  239 

Mr.  Kock  was  thwarted  by  his  pastor,  but  not  con- 
quered. The  scheme  of  union  was  so  deeply  cherished, 
that  he  left  no  effort  untried  to  effect  it.  To  this  end,  he 
determined  that  Mr.  Naesman  must  be  removed.  Various 
plans  of  persuading  away  failed,  until  at  last  the  authorities 
in  Sweden  accepted  Mr.  Kock's  offer  to  pay  the  traveling 
expenses  of  his  successor.  Mr.  Naesman  was,  therefore, 
greatly  surprised  when  in  November,  1 749,  Rev.  Israel 
Acrelius  arrived  as  provost  of  the  Swedish  churches,  and 
brought  with  him  a  communication  from  the  archbishop 
and  consistory  informing  the  pastor  of  Gloria  Dei  Church 
to  prepare  for  returning  to  Sweden  in  the  spring.^ 

Meanwhile  there  had  been  a  number  of  important 
changes.  Nyberg  had  been  excluded  from  the  Swedish 
ministry.  Peter  Kock  had  died.  A  synod  had  actually 
been  held,  and,  strangest  of  all,  Naesman  had  participated 
in  the  religious  services  by  which  it  was  inaugurated.  The 
joint  labors  of  Muhlenberg,  Brunnholtz,  and  Handschuh, 
in  the  spring  of  1748,  upon  a  liturgy  had  probably  some- 
thing to  do  with  its  formation.  From  the  very  beginning 
the  three  congregations  that  had  called  Muhlenberg  had 
gone  under  the  name  of  "the  United  Congregations." 
Germantown  was  added,  then  Lancaster,  then  Tulpe- 
hocken,  then  York.  At  this  time,  these,  with  their 
"  filials,"  or  dependent  churches  or  preaching-points,  con- 
stituted *' the  United  Congregations."-  Pastor  Hartwig, 
of  Rhinebeck,  N.  Y.,  had  been  at  Raritan,  N.  J.,  aiding  in 
settling  the  difficulties  of  those  most  troubled  churches  in 
that  vicinity,  and  had  come  to  Pennsylvania.  The  dedica- 
tion of  St.  Michael's  Church,  Philadelphia,  was  to  be  an 
occasion  of  especial  importance  and  to  bring  together  the 
representative  men  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America. 

1  For  particulars  of  above  conference,  see  Acrelius,  pp.  242-254. 

2  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  old  ed.,  p.  122. 


240  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiv. 

The  urgency  of  the  congregation  at  Tulpehocken  for  the 
services  of  Nicholas  Kurtz  as  pastor,  rendered  his  ordina- 
tion necessary.  No  better  opportunity  could  be  had  for 
proceeding  to  the  formation  of  a  synod.  The  relation  of 
the  Swedes  to  it  was  yet  problematical.  Nevertheless, 
they  did  not  decline  to  participate,  urged,  doubtless,  by 
the  presence  of  the  trustee  of  Gloria  Dei  Church,  Mr.  Kock, 
who  had  more  extensive  plans  for  the  new  synod  than  were 
apparent  in  the  proceedings. 

Before  the  public  services,  on  August  23,  1748  (N.  S.), 
Brunnholtz,  Handschuh,  and  Hartwig  met  as  an  examina- 
tion committee.  The  questions  and  answers  were  after- 
ward transmitted  to  Halle.  The  questions  were  criticised 
as  being  too  difficult  to  be  answered  in  such  a  brief  time. 
The  answers  were,  as  a  whole,  approved  as  such  as  would 
have  done  credit  to  candidates  in  Germany.  Among  the 
obligations  which  he  subscribed  among  the  conditions  of 
his  ordination  is  one  to  teach  nothing,  either  publicly  or 
privately,  in  his  congregations  "  but  what  is  conformable 
to  the  Word  of  God  and  the  confessions  of  the  Evangelical 
Lutheran  Church."  Another  pledges  that  he  will  "intro- 
duce no  ceremonies  in  the  public  service  and  administration 
of  the  sacraments  but  those  which  have  been  introduced  by 
the  college  of  pastors  of  the  United  Congregations,  and  use 
no  other  formula  but  that  which  has  been  indicated  to  me 
by  the  same." 

On  the  next  day  (Sunday)  St.  Michael's  was  consecrated. 
The  procession  from  Pastor  Brunnholtz's  house  was  headed 
by  the  Swedish  provost,  Sandin,  followed  by  the  other 
clergy  and  the  delegates  from  the  congregations.  "  Come, 
Holy  Spirit,  God  and  Lord,"  was  sung.  A  letter  from 
the  aged  Swedish  pastor  at  Wilmington,  Tranberg,  regret- 
ting his  absence  and  congratulating  the  congregation  in 
English,  was  then  read.     The  address  seems  to  have  been 


MINISTERIUM  OF  PENNSYLVANIA.  24 1 

intended  to  give  particular  emphasis  to  the   confessional 
position  of  the  congregation.      The  speaker  said  : 

The  foundation  of  this  church  was  laid  with  the  intention  that  the  Evan- 
gelical Lutheran  doctrine  should  be  taught  therein  according  to  the  founda- 
tion of  the  prophets  and  apostles,  and  according  to  the  Unaltered  Augsburg 
Confession  and  the  other  symbolical  books.  .  .  .  After  this  the  entire  build- 
ing and  its  parts,  as  the  pulpit,  the  baptismal  font,  and  altar,  were  formally 
dedicated  to  the  preaching  of  the  saving  Word  and  the  administration  of  the 
Holy  Sacraments  according  to  our  symbolical  books.  The  Church  Council 
of  Philadelphia  were  required  to  publicly  and  orally  promise  that,  with  God's 
assistance,  they  would  endeavor  to  preserve  the  church  as  long  as  they  could 
against  fire,  water,  and  other  accidents,  for  the  above-mentioned  purpose 
for  their  children  and  their  children's  children. 

Another  hymn  was  sung,  and  then  six  prayers  were 
offered,  two  in  Swedish  by  the  Swedish  pastors,  and  four 
in  German  by  Revs.  Brunnholtz,  Hartwig,  and  Handschuh, 
and  Mr.  Kock.  After  another  hymn  a  child  was  baptized, 
a  sermon  was  preached  by  Rev.  Handschuh,  and  then  the 
ministers  with  a  few  of  the  congregation  received  the 
Lord's  Supper.  In  the  afternoon  there  was  another  pro- 
cession to  the  church.  Pastor  Hartwig  preached  the 
ordination  sermon  from  Ezekiel  xxxiii.  8,  The  Swedish 
provost  and  the  four  German  pastors  ordained  Mr.  Kurtz. 
The  lay  delegates  stood  in  a  semicircle  about  the  altar 
during  the  ceremony  of  laying  on  of  hands  and  prayer. 
The  liturgical  formula  was  read  by  Muhlenberg.^ 

The  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  began  without  any 
formal  constitution.  The  pastors  present  knew  one  another 
as  pledged  to  the  same  faith,  and  as  those  who  would 
make  the  same  demands  of  others.  The  constitution  was 
to  be  developed  in  the  life  of  the  synod  before  it  would 
be  reduced  to  writing.  The  minutes,  signed  by  the  four 
German  pastors  from  Pennsylv^ania  and  some  of  the  dele- 
gates, have  been  preserved."     The  Swedish  provost  and 

1  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  old  ed.,  p.  285  ;  new  ed.,  p.  393. 

2  Ibid.,  new  ed. ,  pp.  208-211. 


242  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiv. 

Revs.  Hartwig,  Muhlenberg,  Brunnholtz,  Handschuh,  and 
Kurtz  were  the  clerical  members.  The  Swedish  laity  were 
represented  by  Peter  Kock.  The  entire  church  council 
of  the  Philadelphia  congregation,  four  lay  delegates  from 
Germantown,  three  from  Providence,  three  from  New 
Hanover,  two  from  Upper  Milford,  one  from  Saccum, 
three  from  Tulpehocken,  one  from  Nordkiel,  six  from 
Lancaster,  and  one  from  Earlingtown  were  present.  The 
synod  consisted  of  six  ministers  and  twenty-four  lay  dele- 
gates exclusive  of  those  from  the  Philadelphia  church. 
The  congregation  at  York  was  represented  by  a  letter, 
regretting  the  absence  of  representatives  because  of  the 
distance  and  the  short  notice  which  had  been  received. 

After  a  hymn,  the  object  of  the  meeting  was  stated  in 
an  address  by  Muhlenberg.  He  referred  to  the  attempt 
made  five  years  before  and  its  failure,  and  declared  that 
the  cause  of  that  failure  was  the  Moravian  influence  ex- 
erted through  Nyberg.  He  dwelt  upon  the  importance 
of  a  closer  union  between  the  congregations.  Every 
member  of  the  church,  he  said,  had  those  for  whose  future 
he  was  responsible.  The  parents  must  provide  not  only 
for  themselves,  but  for  their  children.  "  We  are  here  to 
provide,  if  possible,  for  yearly  meetings  of  this  kind.  The 
ministers  present  have  not  run  of  themselves,  but  have 
been  regularly  called  to  the  work.  We  all  stand  in  con- 
nection with  the  fathers  in  Europe." 

The  lay  delegates  were  then  called  upon  to  give  a  report 
concerning  the  efficiency  of  the  pastors.  The  condition  of 
the  parochial  schools  was  next  inquired  into,  and  a  sum- 
mary of  the  reports  put  on  record.  The  lay  delegates 
were  then  invited  to  give  their  opinion  concerning  the 
recently  prepared  liturgy.  Unanimous  satisfaction  with 
the  desire  of  the  pastors  to  use  a  uniform  order  was  ex- 
pressed.    The  only  criticism  oflfered  was  as  to  the  length 


THE  PROCEEDINGS.  243 

of  the  public  service,  which,  especially  in  extremely  cold 
weather,  was  burdensome  to  the  people.  The  pastors 
promised  to  deliberate  on  the  subject  before  they  sepa- 
rated, and  to  comply  with  the  request. 

It  was  important  to  put  on  record  a  declaration  why 
other  professedly  Lutheran  pastors  had  not  been  invited 
to  participate  in  the  organization  of  the  synod.  It  was 
explained  that  they  had,  without  foundation,  accused  those 
who  had  come  together  in  the  synod  as  Pietists  ;  that  they 
were  not  regularly  called  pastors ;  that  they  were  unwill- 
ing to  adopt  a  uniform  order  of  service  and  government ; 
that  they  were  subject  to  no  consistorium,  and  were  not 
called  to  account  by  any  authority  for  the  proper  exercise 
of  their  office. 

Muhlenberg  admonished  all  the  elders  of  the  great 
importance  of  their  entire  conversion  to  God  in  order  to 
properly  discharge  the  duties  of  their  office.  It  was  de- 
cided to  hold  the  meetings  annually,  in  Philadelphia  and 
Lancaster  alternately.  Two  elders  from  each  congregation 
were  to  be  sent,  at  the  expense  of  the  congregation,  to  the 
next  meeting  at  Lancaster.  The  Swedish  provost  made 
an  address  in  which  he  expressed  his  desire  to  be  a  mem- 
ber of  the  body.  This  shows  that  his  relation  at  the 
meeting  was  rather  that  of  an  advisory  than  that  cf  a  full 
member.  This  seems  to  have  been  also  the  position  of 
Hart  wig. 

With  great  correctness,  Professor  Grabner  designates 
the  proceedings  of  that  day,  August  26  (N.  S.),  1748,  as 
**  the  most  important  event  in  the  history  of  the  American 
Lutheran  Church  of  the  eighteenth  century." 

Although  there  is  no  formal  constitution,  we  can  with- 
out difficulty  read  the  main  features  of  the  organization. 

It  was  a  body  consisting,  first,  of  pastors  officially  called 
and  commissioned  by  the  authorities  in  Halle,  at  the  ap- 


244  ^-^^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiv. 

peal  of  "the  United  Congregations,"  and  approved  by  the 
church  authorities  of  Hanover,  as  the  Lutheran  representa- 
tives of  the  then  reigning  king  of  England ;  and,  secondly, 
of  other  pastors  concerning  whose  unity  in  the  faith  and  the 
regularity  of  whose  call  there  could  be  no  question  on  the 
part  of  the  authorities  in  Europe.  The  pastors  were  all, 
responsible  to  those  in  Europe  who  had  commissioned  them. 
They  continued  to  transmit  regular  reports  to  these  author- 
ities, and  were  subject  to  their  orders  and  discipline,  as  well 
as  dependent  upon  them,  at  least  in  part,  for  their  support. 
The  determination  of  the  ordination  of  a  candidate  for  the 
ministry  was  made  by  the  pastors  alone,  subject  to  three 
conditions,  viz.,  that  the  applicant  be  one  whom  the 
authorities  in  Europe  would  approve,  that  the  examination 
papers  be  transmitted  and  reviewed  at  Halle,  and  that  a 
call  from  a  particular  congregation  be  present.  The  final 
decision  in  doctrinal  and  liturgical  questions  belonged  to  the 
pastors,  subject,  of  course,  to  advice  and  approval  at  Halle. 

The  lay  delegates  were,  the  church  councils,  or  some  of 
the  elders  as  their  representatives.  They  gave  a  report  to 
the  synod,  when  asked,  concerning  the  work  of  their  pas- 
tors ;  they  were  present  and  participated  with  the  pastors 
in  making  reports  concerning  the  parochial  schools ;  they 
presented  requests  to  the  synod ;  they  were  consulted  by 
the  pastors  concerning  liturgical  and  other  questions,  but 
the  decision  on  these  subjects  was  reserved  for  the  pastors, 
acting  under  instructions  from  Halle.  There  was  no  vote 
taken  in  the  common  assem.bly  of  pastors  and  'laymen. 
*'  The  recognition  of  a  pastor  by  the  synod  was  a  pledge 
that  he  was  well  prepared  for  the  ministry  and  a  man  of 
worthy  character."  i 

There  was  as  yet  no  president;  but  Muhlenberg,  by 
virtue  of  his  first  call  and  commission,  had  a  preeminence, 

1  Note  to  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  new  ed.,  p.  183. 


THE    OFFICE    OF  OVERSIGHT.  245 

as  bearing  a  special  responsibility  for  all  the  rest.  They 
assembled  during  Saturday,  spent  Sunday  in  public  wor- 
ship, held  the  conference  with  the  lay  delegates  on  Mon- 
day, adjourning  generally  by  the  middle  of  the  afternoon, 
after  which  they  dined  together.  After  the  laymen  had 
finished  their  duties  the  pastors  attended  to  such  business 
as  especially  belonged  to  them.  This  was  the  order  for 
many  years. 

Seven  annual  meetings  were  held,  viz.  :  i  748,  Philadel- 
phia;  1749,  Lancaster;  1750,  Providence;  1751,  Phila- 
delphia; 1752,  Germantown  ;  1753,  Tulpehocken  ;  1754, 
New  Hanover.  At  the  second  meeting  the  first  item  of 
business  was  "  Pastor  Muhlenberg's  proposition  concerning 
the  necessity  of  the  annual  election  of  an  overseer  of  all  the 
United  Congregations."  Pastor  Brunnholtz  was  elected, 
although  against  the  protest  of  the  Philadelphia  delegates, 
who  urged  their  pastor's  delicate  health  and  the  already 
too  heavy  burden  which  the  care  of  his  congregations  had 
imposed  upon  him.  Not  only  was  this  office  not  recog- 
nized by  the  authorities  in  Halle,  who  in  all  their  corre- 
spondence say  not  a  word  concerning  it,  since  it  seemed  to 
be  an  infringement  upon  the  European  superintendency  of 
the  Pennsylvania  churches,^  but  from  the  very  full  ac- 
count of  the  discussions  at  the  meeting  of  the  synod  in 
1760,  the  Halle  editors  of  the  *'  Reports  "  have  omitted  the 
section  referring  to  this  office,  where  it  "is  stated  that  bv  a 
unanimous  vote  the  synod  affirmed  the  necessity  of  such 
an  office. 2  Brunnholtz's  health  did  not  allow  him  to  retain 
it  long,  and  it  then  was  transferred  to  Muhlenberg,  who 
exercised  it  for  many  years.  One  or  more  of  the  Swedish 
pastors  was  generally  present,  although  not  at  Lancaster 
in  1749,  nor  at  Providence  in  1751. 

1  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  new  ed.,  note,  p.  271. 

2  See  MS.  in  Archives  at  Mount  Airy. 


246  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiv. 

The  new  synod  was  struggling  hard  for  existence. 
Whatever  gains  it  was  making  were  almost  completely 
lost  sight  of  in  the  new  demands  which  the  constantly  in- 
creasing immigration  made  upon  the  pastors.  The  rein- 
forcements sent  them  from  Halle  were  entirely  insufficient. 
They  were  beginning  to  realize  the  fact  that  they  could 
not  endure  the  same  exposures  and  fatigues  as  during  the 
first  years  of  their  ministry  in  America.  Their  opponents 
were  active.  Whatever  errors  they  may  have  made  in  the 
perhaps  too  indiscriminate  judgment  of  those  whose  pres- 
ence in  the  synod  they  at  first  deemed  undesirable,  were 
used  against  them.  Not  only  was  the  charge  of  Pietism 
freely  circulated,  but  it  was  said  that  they  were,  after  all, 
only  secret  agents  of  Zinzendorf,  seeking  by  their  synod 
to  reproduce  his  conferences.-^  Such  reports  were  very 
effective  in  prejudicing  the  people  against  the  synod. 
New  pastors  of  good  education  and  respectable  character 
from  Germany  entered  the  field  which  Halle  could  or 
would  not  hold.  Even  Muhlenberg  himself  recommended 
the  congregation  at  Reading  to  petition  the  authorities  in 
Wiirtemberg  for  a  pastor. 

A  most  urgent  appeal,  signed  by  Muhlenberg,  Brunn- 
holtz,  and  Handschuh,  was  sent  to  both  London  and 
Halle  after  having  been  adopted  by  the  synod  in  1754. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  important  papers  in  the  Halle 
*'  Reports."  The  entire  field  is  surveyed,  the  history  of 
German  immigration  traced,  and  the  religious  condition 
of  the  immigrants  described.  The  manner  in  which  other 
denominations  and  the  Swedish  Lutherans  are  aided  by 
foreign  help  is  shown,  and  a  very  discouraging  contrast  is 
drawn.  The  condition  of  each  parish  is  then  candidly  and 
at  length  set  forth.     Three  great  dangers  they  see  threat- 

1  MS.  of  Muhlenberg,  September  22d,  1760,  in  "Archives  of  Ministerium 
of  Pennsylvania." 


AN   URGENT  APPEAL.  247 

ening  the  inner  life  of  congregations,  viz.  :  the  assumption, 
by  the  leading  men  of  particular  parishes,  of  the  right  to 
dictate,  as  a  compensation  for  the  perhaps  greater  amount 
expected  of  them  for  the  pastor's  support ;  the  lawlessness 
of  immigrants  who  abuse  the  freedom  of  the  country, 
want  to  break  through  all  rules,  and  revile  all  good  order, 
the  regular  ministry,  and  divine  service  as  papacy  itself; 
the  introduction  of  worthless  men  into  the  country  as  pre- 
tended ministers  by  "the  Newlanders,"  who  sell  their 
services  from  the  ship  to  Lutherans  willing  to  be  deceived 
in  this  way.  The  **  united  pastors,"  they  urge,  are  almost 
powerless  to  resist.  The  people  are,  as  a  rule,  poor.  In 
a  congregation  of  three  hundred  members,  scarcely  fifteen 
can  be  found  able  to  contribute  toward  the  building  of 
churches ;  and  the  responsibility  for  debts  incurred  must, 
therefore,  as  a  rule,  fall  upon  the  pastors  themselves. 
Many  thousands  of  Lutheran  people  are  scattered  through- 
out North  Carolina,  Virginia,  Maryland,  New  Jersey,  New 
York,  etc.  No  provision  is  made  for  the  traveling  ex- 
penses of  the  pastors,  or  suppHes  for  their  places,  if  these 
Lutherans  are  to  be  cared  for.  People  come  often  one 
and  even  two  hundred  miles  to  hear  a  sermon  and  receive 
the  sacrament,  and  weep  bitterly  over  the  destitution, 
which  no  one  endeavors  to  remove.  They  contrast  the 
condition  of  a  pastor  in  the  New  with  that  of  one  in  the 
Old  World.  The  latter  has  the  assurance  of  necessary 
support,  of  protection  in  his  office,  of  all  needed  buildings, 
of  provision  for  the  proper  instruction  of  his  people.  The 
former  has  none  of  these.  Among  ten  families  there  is 
scarcely  one  or  two  that  contributes  according  to  its  prom- 
ises. The  sects  diffuse  among  the  people  the  ideas,  to 
which  they  lend  too  ready  assent,  that  the  pastors  as  well 
as  their  hearers  ought  to  work  at  a  trade,  cut  wood,  sow 
and  reap  during  the  week,  and  then  preach  to  them  gra- 


248  THE   LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xiv. 

tuitously  on  Sunday.  They  hear  such  things  wherever  they 
go — in  papers,  in  company,  on  their  journeys,  and  at  the 
taverns.  The  picture  is  a  very  dark  one.  The  pastors  feel 
that  they  are  standing  at  the  base  of  a  vast  mountain,  up 
whose  steep  sides^  they  do  not  see  how  it  is  possible  for 
them  to  advance ;  and  yet  tcJ  recede  or  even  to  be  station- 
ary must  be  fatal. ^ 

Such  representations  probably  had  something  to  do  with 
the  impression  current  for  a  while  at  Halle  that  Muhlenberg 
was  visionary  and  eccentric,  so  strange  do  his  statements 
seem  to  thosQ  incompetent  from  personal  observation  to 
appreciate  the  urgency  of  the  situation  in  Pennsylvania.  If 
there  was  any  time  when,  even  for  a  moment,  Muhlenberg 
entertained  the  suggestion  of  transferring  the  care  of  the 
Lutherans  of  Pennsylvania  to  the  Church  of  England,  it 
was  only  at  some  such  time,  when  he  and  his  associates  in 
the  synod  were  allowed  to  struggle  on  under  such  burdens 
almost  unaided,  while  union  with  the  Church  of  England 
would  at  once  have  provided  all  missionaries  sent  thither 
with  an  appropriation  almost  sufficient  for  support,  and 
with  far  better  protection  against  the  prevalent  disorder. 
If  the  Lutherans  in  Europe  could  not  meet  the  demands 
of  the  hour,  we  can  pardon  the  thought,  which  never  be- 
came a  fixed  purpose,  that,  sooner  than  have  the  thousands 
for  whose  care  he  felt  himself  responsible  neglected,  some 
other  mode  of  relief  would  have  to  be  sought. 

Under  these  circumstances,  combined  with  the  deaths 
of  Heintzelmann  and  Brunnholtz,  and  the  blunders  of 
Handschuh  at  Lancaster,  Germantown,  and  Philadelphia, 
there  were  no  synodical  sessions  after  that  of  1754,  until 
the  interest  that  seemed  dead  was  revived  in  1 760  by  the 
arrival  of  the  Swedish  provost  Von  Wrangel,  and  his  at- 

1  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  old  ed.,  pp.  662-689. 


ALMOST  LOST.  249 

tempt  to  establish  a  German-Swedish  synod.  The  pastors 
were  diligent,  each  in  his  own  parish,  and  cooperated 
cordially  as  individuals ;  but  we  may  almost  say  that  the 
synod  died  in  its  infancy,  and  that  an  entirely  new  organi- 
zation arose  in  the  latter  year. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

MUHLENBERG    IN    NEW   YORK. — ACRELIUS   AND 
WRANGEL. 

A  VERY  important  interruption  of  Muhlenberg's  work 
in  Pennsylvania  was  occasioned  by  his  connection  with  the 
old  Dutch  congregation  in  New  York.  In  August,  17.50, 
he  had  gone  with  his  father-in-law,  Conrad  Weiser,  up  the 
Hudson,  and  had  been  endeavoring  to  settle  difficulties  in 
the  congregations  of  Pastor  Hartwig,  who  had  been  charged 
with  being  a  Moravian.  Stopping  in  New  York  on  his 
return,  he  had  been  asked  to  aid  in  bringing  order  out  of 
confusion  in  the  old  church  there,  which  had  been  rent 
by  the  conflict  between  the  Dutch  and  the  German  ele- 
ments, and  was  suffering  by  the  withdrawal  of  a  number 
of  the  Germans  and  the  formation  of  a  new  German  con- 
gregation, served  then  by  Rev.  J.  F.  Riess.  This  was  the 
occasion  of  the  friendly  interview  with  Berkenmeyer  pre- 
viously mentioned. 

The  result  was  a  most  urgent  appeal  on  the  part  of  the 
congregation  for  Muhlenberg  to  become  their  pastor,  with 
the  prospect  of  extending  his  labor  into  that  of  thoroughly 
organizing  the  growing  but  discouraged  Lutheran  Church 
in  the  State  of  New  York.  After  a  conference  between 
the  Pennsylvania  pastors,  temporary  provision  was  made 
for  his  congregations,  and  it  was  decided  that  he  should 
spend  several  months  in  New  York.  His  service  there 
was  at  two  periods,  viz.,  from  May  19th  to  the  close  of 
August,  I  75  I,  and  from  May  9th  to  August  3,  1752.      His 


PREACHING   IN   THREE  LANGUAGES.  25  I 

presence  brought  unity  and  new  life  to  the  distracted 
church.  He  overcame  the  language  difficulty  by  preach- 
ing in  all  three  languages,  Dutch  in  the  morning,  German 
in  the  afternoon,  and  English  in  the  evening,  devoting  a 
large  portion  of  his  time  to  the  study  of  the  Dutch  lan- 
guage and  to  obtaining  a  more  thorough  acquaintance 
with  the  English  Bible.  The  committing  to  memory  of 
his  Dutch  sermons  consumed  for  a  while  three  days  a 
w^eek.  He  took  charge  also  of  the  Dutch  Church  at 
Hackensack.  He  mingled  freely  with  the  more  prominent 
persons  in  the  city,  and  exchanged  visits  with  the  pastors 
of  other  denominations.  He  was  occupied  with  the  prep- 
aration of  liturgical  formularies  adapted  to  his  peculiar  lin- 
guistic relations,  and  had  no  hesitancy,  w^here  it  could  be 
done  to  advantage,  to  avail  himself  of  material  found  in 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  His  journals  give  many 
gratifying  evidences  of  the  divine  blessing  on  his  labors. 
We  give  only  one  example : 

In  the  afternoon  the  church  was  too  small,  and  a  large  crowd  stood  at  the 
door  and  about  the  windows.  I  preached  in  English  on  Luke  xv.  on  the 
prodigal  son,  and  we  sang  from  the  Lutheran  Hymn-book,  translated  into 
English,  "  Jesu,  deine  tiefe  Wunden." 

A  copy  of  the  hymn-book  which  he  used  is  before  us. 
It  is  interesting  to  have  the  very  words  which  he  "  lined 
out,"  in  the  not  very  smooth  translation,  for  that  audience 
to  sing. 

Christ,  thy  holy  wounds  and  passion, 
Bloody  sweat,  cross,  death,  and  tomb, 
Be  my  daily  meditation 
Here,  as  long  I  live  from  home : 
When  thou  seest  a  sinful  thought 
Rise  within,  to  make  me  naught, 
Show  me  that  my  own  pollution 
Caused  thy  bloody  execution,  i 

1  "  Psalmodia  Germanica,"  or  "  The  German  Psalmody,"  translated  from 
the  High  Dutch.     New  York  reprint,  1756,  p.  16  ;  first  ed.,  London,  1722-25. 


252  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xv. 

Never  in  my  life  have  I  seen  such  attentive  hearers.  God  grant  that  all  may 
not  be  vain,  but  that  something  of  his  Word  may  be  sown  in  the  hearts  and 
bring  forth  fruit.  The  church-officers  asked  me  to  preach  on  next  Tuesday, 
smce  the  two  Reformed  churches  have  their  services  on  Sunday,  and  many 
of  them  are  anxious  to  hear  what  a  Lutheran  minister  preaches. 


While  he  did  not  succeed  in  uniting  the  two  New  York 
congregations,  he  nevertheless  had  much  to  show  for  his 
two  summer  vacations.  He  secured  a  pastor  for  the  old 
congregation,  in  the  person  of  Rev.  J.  A.  Weygand,  who 
had  been  previously  in  the  Raritan  charge,  and  who  con- 
tinued the  regular  use  of  the  three  languages  in  public  ser- 
vices. But  he  brought  back  with  him  an  enlarged  view 
of  the  field,  and  a  much  more  thorough  acquaintance  with 
the  details  of  church  organization,  derived  from  his  tem- 
porary pastorate  of  an  American  Lutheran  congregation 
nearly  a  hundred  years  old,  and  organized  upon  the  basis 
of  the  Amsterdam  church  order.  Muhlenberg  was,  to 
the  close  of  life,  a  growing  man,  availing  himself  freely  of 
all  the  opportunities  within  his  reach,  and  directing  every 
element  of  his  experience  to  his  future  work.  The  field 
in  Pennsylvania,  also,  was  seen  in  another  light  when  re- 
garded at  a  distance  and  when  isolated  from  daily  contact 
with  its  less  important  anxieties.' 

As  the  summers  of  1751  and  1752  were  spent  in  New 
York  City,  so  those  of  1758  and  1759  were  spent  in  the 
Raritan  charge,  N.  J.,  where  he  believed  his  presence  most 
necessary.  His  conception  of  his  call  to  America  and 
of  his  responsibility  as  president  of  the  synod  did  not 
allow  him  to  regard  himself  bound  so  closely  to  any  one 
parish  as  to  deter  him  from  leaving  it  for  more  neglected 
fields  when  the  necessity  was  urgent.  He  states  this, 
with  the  limitations  of  his  duty,  in  a  letter  to  the  New 
York  congregation,  after  he  had  been  with  them  the  first 
time. 


COOPERATION  OF   THE   SWEDES.  253 

My  first  and  lawful  call  is  for  Pennsylvania.  I  cannot  run,  like  other 
vagabonds,  from  one  place  to  another,  neither  can  I  move  to  another  place, 
without  consent  of  my  superiors  and  ordinary  congregations.  .  .  .  My  call 
and  my  business  in  America  have  been  these  nine  years  past  to  gather  our 
poor  and  scattered  Lutherans  into  congregations,  and  to  introduce  lawfully 
called,  ordained,  and  pious  ministers.  If  I  can  do  the  same,  by  the  help  of 
God,  in  New  York,  I  will  not  fear  or  mind  any  trouble,  persecution,  or  evil 
or  good  report.  But  then,  good  people  must  not  depend  upon  my  staying 
here  or  there,  but  thank  God  if  they  be  provided  with  sound  and  faithful 
ministers,  and  give  me  liberty  to  go  from  one  place  to  another,  and  see  how 
far,  by  the  assistance  of  God,  I  may  add  my  mite  to  the  edification  of  our 
Lutheran  Church  in  America,  l 

Meanwhile  a  most  important  adviser  and  assistant  was 
to  be  brought  Muhlenberg  in  another  of  the  Swedish  pas 
tors.  The  interest  in  the  Swedish  churches  in  America, 
which  had  declined  since  the  death  of  Bishop  Svedberg, 
had  been  revived  by  *'  the  pious  archbishop,  Dr.  Jacob 
Benzelius." '-^  Provost  Sandin,  who  assisted  in  the  organi- 
zation of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  was  one  of  its 
fruits.  But  his  participation  in  those  services  was  one  of 
his  last  acts.  Before  August,  1748,  had  passed,  he  was 
at  rest.  Mr.  Parlin,  sent,  through  Kock's  importunity,  to 
displace  Naesman,  although  appointed  in  May,  i  749,  was 
delayed  in  reaching  his  charge  at  Wicaco  until  July,  1750. 
Six  years  later,  on  the  departure  of  Acrelius,  he  became 
provost,  and  died  in  1757. 

Israel  Acrelius,  pastor  at  Wilmington,  Del,  and  provost 
of  the  Swedish  churches,  arrived  in  November,  1749.  His 
period  of  seven  years  was  marked  by  much  activity.  He 
cooperated  cordially  with  the  German  pastors,  and  at- 
tended a  number  of  the  sessions  of  the  synod.  He  pro- 
vided for  a  meeting  of  the  Swedish  ministers  three  times 
a  year,  once  in  each  parish,  beginning  with  the  Lord's 
Supper  on  Sunday,  and  occupied  on  succeeding  days  with 

1  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  xii.,  p.  200  sq. 

2  Acrelius,  p.  336. 


254  ^-^^^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xv. 

consultations  upon  official  duties,  one  or  more  of  the  Ger- 
man pastors  being  present  at  least  once  a  year.  He  read, 
at  the  meeting  of  the  synod  at  New  Hanover  in  1754,  a 
Latin  dissertation  on  ''  The  Origin  and  Progress  of  the 
German  Evangelical  Congregations  in  Pennsylvania,"  ^ 
which  was  afterward  circulated  in  Europe.  This  paper 
reflects  the  prevalent  discouragement : 

It  is  yet  a  doubtful  matter  whether  our  German  Evangelical  Church  will 
stand  or  fall ;  and  it  is  improbable,  if  it  were  to  fall,  whether  it  could  be 
revived.  The  means  to  build  churches,  support  ministers,  build  and  sustain 
schools  are  altogether  inadequate  for  needy  immigrants  and  a  people  scarcely 
recovered  from  long  servitude.  What  wonder  if  our  weak  powers  are  alto- 
gether incommensurable  with  our  godly  desires !  2 

The  list  of  congregations,  which  he  gives  in  their  Latin 
form,  will  doubtless  interest  succeeding  pastors : 

Parochia  Philadelphiensis,  Francofurtana,  Germanopolitana,  Neshamensis, 
Dublinensis  superior,  Tohiconensis,  illaque  ad  furcas  fluvii  de  la  Ware,  nee 
non  alia  quKcunque  prope  Trajectum  ad  idem  flumen,  vulgo  Roses-Ferry, 
Saccumensis  porro  Milfordensis,  Heidelbergensis  juxta  montes  subcaeruleos 
Weissenburgensis,  Jordanensis,  Macunshyensis,  novae  Goshehoppensis,veteris 
Goshehoppensis,  et  quae  in  campo  Indianorum  sita  est,  vulgo  Indian-Field : 
Schippackensis  quoque,  novas  Providentise,  Pikespolitana,  magnae  Vallis, 
Molotoniana  seu  Olyensis,  nova  Hannoverensis,  Colebrookdahlensis,  Vin- 
centii  Alsatise,  Readingensis,  Heidelbergensis,  Kilonii  septentrionalis,  Tulpe- 
hookensis,  Lancastrensis,  Carlopolitana,  omnes  et  singulae  intra  Imiites  Pen- 
sylvaniae.  His  adnumerantur  Ecclesia  Fredericopolitana  in  Terra  Marite, 
vulgo  Maryland  :  Cohenzyensis  denique  Rachewayensis,  Leslyensis,  Fosser- 
bergensis,  Hevinksachensis  in  nova  Caesarea,  novi  Eboracensis,  aliaeque.3 

Acrelius'  chief  distinction  is  his  very  complete  "  History 
of  New  Sweden,"  from  which  most  of  our  knowledge  of 
the  history  of  the  Swedish  churches  is  derived.  Broken 
down  by  fevers,  which  he  ascribed  to  the  climate,  and  dis- 

1  Ibid.,  p.  312.  The  paper  is  published  in  "Acta  Historica-Ecclesiastica," 
vol.  XX.,  pp.  51  sqq. 

2  "Acta  Historica-Ecclesiastica,"  vol.  xx.,  p.  57. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  55. 


THE   GREATEST  SWEDE.  255 

couraged  by  his  inability  to  solve  the  language  question 
in  his  churches,  he  returned  to  Sweden  in  1756,  and  died 
in  1800.  His  estimate  of  Muhlenberg  should  be  ever 
remembered : 

Every  right-minded  person  in  the  place  must  acknowledge  that  Mr.  Muhl- 
enberg is  a  pure  Evangelical  teacher  and  a  chosen  instrument  of  God,  who 
with  wisdom,  liberality,  and  zeal  has  gathered  and  built  up  the  church  of 
Christ  in  a  wild  land,  l 

With  Acrelius,  Eric  Unander  had  come,  who  was  pastor 
from  1749  to  1756  at  Racoon  and  from  1756  to  1760  at 
Wilmington.  Lidenius  was  his  successor  in  the  former 
place  (1756-63),  and  Borell  in  the  latter  (1760-68). 

But,  however  cordial  Muhlenberg's  relations  with  pred- 
ecessors, with  Charles  Magnus  Wrangel,  the  provost  of  the 
Swedish  churches  from  1 759  to  i  768,  there  came  a  man  after 
his  own  heart,  and  with  whom  he  seems  to  have  culti- 
vated the  closest  intimacy  of  his  life.  He  was  a  descend- 
ant of  the  famous  general  of  that  name,^  and  was  still  a 
young  man  during  his  stay  in  America.  After  completing 
his  course  at  Westeras  and  Upsala,  he  had  studied  in 
Gottingen,  where  he  had  received  in  1757  the  degree  of 
doctor  of  divinity.  While  serving  as  private  chaplain  to 
the  king,  he  was  called  to  the  provostship.  On  August 
24,  1 760,  he  w^ent  to  Muhlenberg's  home  at  The  Trappe — 
a  day's  journey  then — to  invite  him  to  attend  the  approach- 
ing meeting  of  the  Swedish  pastors.  *'  I  was  greatly 
moved,"  says  Muhlenberg,  **  by  his  mild  and  humble  man- 
ners, and  edified  by  his  weighty  conversation  relative  to 
the  kingdom  of  God." 

At  the  Sw'cdish  conference,  which  Muhlenberg  attended 
(September  14th),  this  impression  w^as  deepened  by  the 
sermon  with  which,  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  conference 

1  "History,"  p.  249. 

2  Dr.  Reynolds'  Appendix  to  Acrelius'  "  History,"  p.  346. 


256  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xv. 

was  Opened.  The  instructions  from  Sweden,  which  were 
read,  explicitly  directed  the  Swedish  pastors  to  live  in 
harmony  with  the  German  Lutheran  pastors  and  attend 
their  annual  meetings.  It  is  said  that  until  his  departure 
Wrangel  never  missed  a  meeting  of  the  synod.  He 
participated  in  the  discussions  and  in  the  examination  and 
ordination  of  candidates,  acted  as  arbitrator  in  difficult 
cases,  and  with  Muhlenberg  prepared  the  congregational 
constitution  for  the  Philadelphia  Church,  which  has  had  a 
most  important  influence  upon  subsequent  congregational 
organization.  When,  by  his  advice,  Muhlenberg  moved 
to  Philadelphia  in  1761,  to  bring  the  church  there  into 
better  order  than  it  had  previously  enjoyed,  their  visits 
were  frequent,  and  sometimes,  while  they  talked  over  their 
common  interests,  so  protracted,  that  the  visitor  was 
compelled  to  tarry  with  his  friend  over  night.  When  the 
Barren  Hill  Church  was  oppressed  by  a  most  distressing 
debt,  Wrangel  assumed  the  responsibility  of  one  third  of 
it,  and  shared  all  the  perils  and  anxieties  of  his  friend. 
Wrangel  rescued  the  Germantown  congregation  from  the 
difficulties  in  which  it  had  been  involved  during  Hand- 
schuh's  pastorate. 

How  well  he  administered  the  afi"airs  of  the  Swedish 
congregations,  then  numbering  about  three  thousand  mem- 
bers,^ Muhlenberg  himself  may  tell.  At  the  Swedish  con- 
ference in  I  76 1,  in  a  discussion  on  the  language  question, 
Muhlenberg  described  the  gloomy  outlook  for  the  Swed- 
ish churches  only  a  few  years  previously,  when  every  effort 
was  put  forth  by  the  Church  of  England  to  attract  its 
members  *'  and  thus  to  make  an  end  to  the  Swedish  Evan- 
gelical Lutheran  Church  in  this  country."  Then,  address- 
ing the  provost,  he  said : 

1  Nyberg,  p.  149. 


NEW  LIFE. 


257 


Far  be  it  from  me  to  flatter  you,  as  the  world  is  wont  to  do,  or  to  praise 
you  without  cause.  But  with  a  good  conscience  and  before  God  I  can  testify 
to  this,  that  under  your  care  the  Swedish  churches  are  waking  up,  and  flour- 
ish and  give  assurance  of  a  bright  future,  if  the  good  work  is  only  continued. 
July  26th,  29th,  and  30th  I  was  at  Kingsess,  Caliconhook,  Tenacuni,  Amas- 
land,  and  August  2d  at  Wicaco.  In  all  these  churches  I  was  an  eye-witness 
of  all  the  great  changes  which  the  merciful  God  has  wrought  among  our 
Swedish  brethren  and  their  English  relations  by  means  of  your  most  faithful 
services.  In  Kingsess  I  noticed  with  astonishment  how  from  all  sides,  not 
only  the  Swedes,  but  also  the  English  and  Germans,  came  together  in  large 
crowds,  how  attentive  they  were,  and  how  eager  to  hear  the  Word  of  God. 
.  .  .  Trustworthy  and  venerable  Swedes  said  to  me,  that,  owing  to  the  inde- 
fatigable labors  of  his  Reverence  the  provost  in  visiting  every  family,  and 
his  condescending  instruction  of  the  youth  in  Swedish  and  English,  more 
than  twenty  adult  persons  had  already  received  baptism,  who  before  had 
been  entirely  ignorant  and  spiritually  dead ;  that  others  who  for  years  had 
not  approached  the  Lord's  Table  now  evinced  a  hunger  and  thirst  for  the 
body  and  blood  of  the  Lord ;  that  a  number  of  adults  who  had  never  been 
confirmed  were  carefully  instructed  by  the  provost  and  had  now  become 
active  members  of  the  church ;  that  all  those  Swedes  who  had  connected 
themselves  with  the  High  Church  at  Chester  had  returned  to  the  church  of 
their  fathers  ;  and  that  even  a  number  of  influential  English  residents  had 
declared  their  readiness  to  join  the  Lutheran  congregation  in  case  a  church 
could  be  built,  and  there  would  also  be  English  services  in  addition  to  the 
Swedish.  1 

1  Dr.  Nicum  in  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  xii.,  p.  274  sq. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

SYNODICAL    ORGANIZATION    COMPLETED. 

Wrangel's  first  visit  to  Muhlenberg  had  an  object  be- 
yond that  of  inviting  the  latter  to  the  Swedish  conference. 
It  was  to  accomplish,  if  possible,  the  resuscitation  of  the 
synod  that  for  five  years  had  been  practically  dead.  Pos- 
sibly the  provost's  purpose  may  not  have  been  more  than 
to  meet  his  German  brethren.  If  so,  the  result  was  more 
than  he  intended.  Immediately  after  the  adjournment  of 
the  Swedish  conference,  Muhlenberg  sent  out,  as  the  Halle 
"  Reports  "  say,  '*  a  circular"  ;  but  this  meant  also  a  long 
letter,  as  several  of  them  lie  before  us.^  The  following 
was  sent  to  Pastor  Gerock,  of  Lancaster : 

Rev.  and  dear  'Brother:  I  take  the  liberty  to  announce  that  (D. V.) 
on  October  19th  and  20th  next,  viz.,  on  the  twentieth  Sunday  after  Trinity, 
the  Holy  Supper  will  be  administered,  and  on  the  following  Monday  a 
fraternal  pastoral  conference  will  be  held  here  in  New  Providence.  The 
reasons  for  it  are  unnecessary  to  state  at  length  to  any  regularly  called 
minister  who  has  at  heart  the  welfare  of  our  poor  ecclesia  plantanda  in 
the  American  wilderness ;  much  less  is  it  necessary  to  present  the  motive, 
since  letters  received  from  you  several  years  ago  make  the  strongest  appeal 
for  such  a  fraternal  meeting,  and  I  have  not  forgotten  them.  The  manner 
of  conducting  the  conference  will  be  determined  by  those  present  according 
to  the  mildness  and  humility  which  they  have  learned  in  following  Christ, 
and  the  gifts  of  the  one  Spirit  given  them,  as  far  as  each  one  is  willing 
to  apply  them  to  the  good  of  the  whole.  All  ambitious  rivalry  will  be  far 
distant,  and  he  who  will  humble  himself  as  a  child  (Matt,  xviii.  4)  will  be 
the  greatest.  The  advantages  are  manifold,  and  are  best  known  to  those 
who  have  experience  both  in  Europe  and  in  this  country.  Although  in  this 
country  we  are  mostly  dependent  upon  the  vox  populi,  and  are  at  a  great 

1  MS.  in  "Archives  of  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania." 
258 


REORGANIZING    THE   SYNOD,  259 

distance  from  our  European  mother-church,  and  are  contending  against  many 
sorrows  and  temptations,  and  have  niany//^  desidcria,  nevertheless  we  hope 
that  we  poor  preachers  may  have  such  freedom  in  our  congregations  as  to  be 
able,  now  and  then,  to  meet,  to  tell  to  one  another  our  troubles,  to  partake  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  together,  to  decide  on  cases  of  conscience,  to  edify  one 
another  with  accounts  concerning  the  progress  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  to 
afford  mutual  encouragement  under  difficult  official  burdens.  The  congrega- 
tions can  have  less  objection  to  this,  since  they  are  not  asked  to  send  delegates, 
but  we  are  to  hold  only  a  pastoral  conference,  to  which,  however,  every  well- 
disposed  member  is  at  liberty  to  come,  and  to  be  a  spectator  and  listener  dur- 
ing our  proceedings,  and  is  invited  also  to  partake  of  our  humble  hospitality. 
The  members  whom  we  expect  to  attend  this  meeting,  and  some  of  whom 
have  advised  the  meeting,  are  the  following.  [Here  followed  the  names  of 
Wrangel,  Borell,  Gerock,  Weygand,  Handschuh,  and  Hausile.]  These  pas- 
tors have  indicated  their  approval  of  the  meeting,  and,  if  nothing  prevent, 
expect  to  be  present.  Satan  and  his  allies  have  tried  and  will  continue  to  try 
to  prevent  such  fraternal  union,  because  united  power  is  stronger  than  their 
king,  and  is  harmful  to  him.  But  when  a  stronger  is  within  us,  there  will  be 
no  danger.  In  case  you  decide  to  come,  my  humble  request  is  that  you  select 
a  text  for  the  chief  sermon  on  the  twentieth  Sunday  after  Trinity,  suitable  to 
admonish  us  preachers  of  our  pastoral  duties,  but  so  that  the  people  may 
also  have  a  lesson.  Because  you  do  not  understand  our  present  church 
constitution,  I  have  sent  a  few  lines  to  your  church  council.  But  I  leave  it 
to  your  mature  judgment  whether  to  hand  the  letter  to  them  or  withhold  it. 

I  remain,  etc., 

H.  Muhlenberg. 
New  Providence, 

24th  September,  1760. 

The  proceedings,  which  we  have  at  considerable  length,^ 
show  no  trace  of  a  synodical  organization.  It  was  a  con- 
vention to  deliberate  concerning  a  future  plan  of  proced- 
ure. The  eight  topics  of  discussion  were:  "  i.  Whether 
it  be  necessary  and  useful  to  continue  an  annual  conven- 
tion of  the  ministers  and  elders  in  the  United  German 
Congregations?  2.  What  are  the  impediments  to  such 
fraternal  convention  and  union?  3.  At  what  place  should 
the   annual   conventions   be   held?     4.   What  is  the  best 

1  In  "Archives  of  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania."  Much  is  omitted  or 
suppressed  in  the  Halle  "Reports,"  old  ed.,  pp.  854-862;  reprinted  in 
Grabner,  p.  371  sq. 


26o  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xvi. 

method  to  hold  Kinderlehre  ?  5.  What  is  the  most  effect- 
ive mode  of  preaching?  6.  What  practices  are  to  be  ob- 
served in  connection  with  the  Lord's  Supper?  7.  Whether 
pastors  should  be  present  or  absent  at  wedding  festivities? 
8.  Whether  a  president  should  be  elected  annually  and 
such  provision  should  be  made  that  he  should  make  a 
visitation  in  all  the  United  Congregations,  and  should 
attend  the  meeting  of  the  Swedish  Synod  as  a  dele- 
gate?" The  last  item,  which  is  suppressed  in  the  Halle 
**  Reports,"  Muhlenberg  states  "  was  answered  by  all  with 
aye,"  i.e.,  unanimously  carried.  Twelve  pastors  and  cate- 
chists  were  present,  not  all  the  names  being  published, 
since  one,  at  least,  came  uninvited.  Laymen  were  present 
from  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Lancaster.  Brizelius. 
was  recognized  as  a  Lutheran  pastor  after  he  had  signed 
a  document  repudiating  the  Moravians,  among  whom  he 
had  previously  labored.  A  wider  platform  than  that  of 
Halle  is  noticeable,  scarcely  half  of  the  ministers  having 
been  trained  there,  and  Gerock,  whose  antagonism  to 
that  tendency  had  been  most  pronounced,  being  one  of 
the  most  prominent  members  of  the  conference.  The 
movement  in  1 760  is  in  all  respects  more  comprehensive 
and  better  adapted  to  the  American  surroundings  than 
that  of  1 748.  The  former  may  be  regarded  as  the  perma- 
nent and  the  latter  only  as  the  temporary  foundation  of  the 
present  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  next  year  (1761)  the  synod  is  known  by  the  title  of 
"  The  Annual  Preachers'  Assembly  of  the  United  Swedish 
and  German  Ministerium."  '  From  1762  the  presence  of 
the  lay  delegates  from  most  of  the  charges  shows  the 
growing  interest  of  the  congregations.  In  i  763  the  synod 
adopted  the  proposal  of  the  president  to  ask  of  the  pas- 
tors annual  reports  of  baptisms,  confirmations,  and  deaths.2 

1  •'  Hallesche  Nachrichten, "  old  ed.,  p.  865.  2  jbid.,  p.  1125. 


FII^ST  SYNODIC  A  L    CONSTITUTION.  26 1 

Thus  the  Synodical  Constitution  gradually  grew.  The 
date  of  its  first  being  committed  to  writing  and  formally 
adopted  is  not  at  hand.  It  was  transcribed  into  the  minute- 
book  begun  in  1781,  after  having  been  in  force  years  be- 
fore. 

The  main  features  of  this  first  Lutheran  Synodical  Con- 
stitution in  America  are  most  important,  as  it  forms  the 
basis  of  so  many  later  synodical  organizations.  The  name 
is  "  The  Evangelical  Lutheran  Ministerium  in  North  Amer- 
ica." 1     The  confessional  obligation  is: 

Every  minister  professes  that  he  holds  the  Word  of  God  and  our  symbol- 
ical books  in  doctrine  and  life.  [vi.  2.]  In  complaints  brought  against  min- 
isters, the  subject  of  investigation  must  refer  to  :  i.  Positive  errors  opposed  to 
the  plain  teachings  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  our  symbolical  books,    [v.  22.] 

In  reference  to  important  cases  of  conscience  and  points 
of  doctrine,  only  ordained  ministers  have  the  right  to  vote 
(iv.  2).  Ministers  licensed  but  not  ordained  were  allowed 
to  perform  pastoral  acts  only  in  congregations  speci- 
fied in  their  license  (v.  29).  The  president  "  is  to  be 
respected  and  honored  as  having  the  oversight,  both  dur- 
ing the  meetings  of  the  synod  and  at  other  times"  (ii.  i). 
Only  **  the  fittest  and  most  learned"  are  eligible  to  the 
office  of  secretary  (iii.  2).  The  pastors  are  pledged  not 
to  declare  themselves  independent  of  the  synod  as  long  as 
they  served  congregations  in  North  America  (iv.  6,  2). 
The  lay  delegates  are  heard  in  the  beginning  of  the  synod- 
ical sessions,  and  then  dismissed  to  their  homes  (v.  14  sq.). 
After  they  are  dismissed  the  ministers  proceed  to  the  con- 
sideration of  congregational  affairs  and  questions  of  con- 
science, committees  of  the  older  pastors  being  appointed 
to  recommend  action  (v.  21).     This  finished,  they  confer 

1  This  was  afterward  changed  to  "  The  German  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  and  Adjacent  States."  In  1882  "  German  "  was 
erased,  thus  going  back  to  the  Muhlenberg  Constitution. 


262  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xvi. 

concerning  the  blessings  and  the  difficulties  attending  their 
labors,  report  concerning  baptisms,  confirmations,  funerals, 
and  communicants,  and  Hsten  to  the  reading  of  the  diaries 
of  the  licensed  candidates  (v.  25).  Ordination  at  special 
conferences  was  not  permissible,  unless  so  ordered  in  a 
given  case  by  the  synod  (v.  31).  Every  pastor  pledges 
himself  to  endeavor  to  introduce  into  his  congregations 
constitutions  corresponding  as  nearly  as  possible  with  those 
now  in  use,  and  harmonizing  with  that  of  the  ministerium 
(vi.  i).  Every  minister  is  required  to  use  the  liturgy  in- 
troduced (vi.  3),  and  gives  a  written  promise  to  that  effect 
(iv.  6,  2).  Every  one  absenting  himself  for  three  years 
without  excuse  shall  be  expelled  (v.  4).  The  other  items 
are  chiefly  composed  of  details  for  the  carrying  out  of 
these  provisions.! 

The  preparation  of  a  congregational  constitution  for 
St.  Michael's  Church  in  1762,  by  Muhlenberg,  with  the 
advice  and  cooperation  of  Dr.  Wrangel,  was  one  of  the 
most  important  works  of  his  life.  Fully  aware  of  the  fact 
that  it  would  become  the  model  of  similar  constitutions 
throughout  the  country,  these  two  great  men  gave  to  it 
months  of  most  careful  and  mature  thought  and  deliber- 
ation. '*  If  in  his  whole  life,"  says  Dr.  Mann,  *'  Muhlen- 
berg had  done  nothing  else  of  a  remarkable  character,  the 
framing  and  introduction  of  this  constitution  in  the  Phila- 
delphia congregation  would  suffice  to  crown  his  head  with 
lasting  honor."  ^ 

It  was  presented  to  the  congregation  after  most  earnest 
prayer  and  admonition,  as  though  it  were  one  of  the 
more  important  acts  in  the  lives  of  those  present.  Such 
it  was,  since  this  constitution  continues  to  live  and  exert 

1  The  Constitution  is  translated  and  published  in  "  Lutheran  Church  Re- 
view," vol.  ix.,  pp.  255-269. 

2  "  Life  of  Muhlenberg,"  p.  370. 


CONGREGATIONAL   CONSTITUTION  263 

its  influence  far  and  wide  throughout  the  Lutheran  Church 
in  all  parts  of  America. 

It  was  carried  by  the  ministers  throughout  the  wide  limits  of  Pennsylvania 
and  adjacent  States.  It  was  inherited  by  new  synods  formed  out  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Ministerium.  It  was  carefully  studied,  and  its  main  features 
adopted  by  the  preparer  of  the  Formula  of  Government  and  Discipline  of 
the  Synods  of  West  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virginia,  and  then  became 
that  of  the  General  Synod.  The  great  body  of  the  congregations  in  this  coun- 
try, outside. of  the  bounds  of  recent  German  synods  in  the  west,  are  organized 
on  this  plan."^ 

Like  the  Synodical  Constitution,  it  had  grown  for  years, 
in  an  unwritten  form,  before  it  reached  that  which  was 
finally  adopted.  The  offices  of  elder  and  vorsteJier  existed 
in  the  Philadelphia  congregation  from  the  very  beginning. 
We  can  trace  them  at  any  rate  to  1734,  and  Weissiger's 
mission  to  England  and  Germany.^  Dr.  Mann  suggests 
that  Zinzendorf's  brief  pastorate  had  some  influence  on 
the  subsequent  organization.-^  Muhlenberg's  papers  were 
laid  before  the  elders  and  vorsteJier  of  the  congregation 
in  Gloria  Dei  Church,  as  before  seen.  Brunnholtz,  during 
his  pastorate,  developed  the  organization  further  by  ap- 
pointing from  the  pulpit  twelve  men  as  elders,  and  then, 
in  connection  with  the  elders  appointed,  electing  four  dea- 
cons. This  arrangement  was  destined  to  cause  trouble 
after  Brunnholtz's  death,  when  the  congregation  justly 
complained  that  it  was  without  representation  in  the  coun- 
cil except  through  the  pastor's  appointment.  Muhlenberg, 
however,  in  the  constitution  for  The  Trappe  congregation 
of  1750,  provided  for  the  election  of  the  church  council 
by  the  whole  congregation.  It  was  to  remedy  the  con- 
fusion in  the  Philadelphia  church  that  the  preparation  of 

1  Dr.  B.  M.  Schmucker,  "  The  Organization  of  the  Congregation  in  the 
Early  Lutheran  Churches  in  America,"  p.  39. 

2  See  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  new  ed.,  pp.  52,  54. 

3  "  Life  of  Muhlenberg,"  p.  353. 


264  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xvi. 

the  new  constitution  was  undertaken.  It  has  not  only 
the  benefits  of  Wrangel's  thorough  familiarity  with  the 
Swedish  Church  organization,  but  also  that  of  the  experi- 
ence which  Muhlenberg  had  gained  by  his  brief  pastorate 
of  the  old  and  well-organized  Dutch  Church  in  New  York. 
A  study  of  this  constitution  is  necessary  for  all  who  would 
understand  the  church  government  within  at  least  three  of 
the  four  general  bodies  in  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America. 
The  pastors  are  required  to  preach  according  to  the 
Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession,  not  only  publicly  but 
"briefly,"  and  on  the  church  festivals  as  well  as  on  Sun- 
days. The  week-day  services  for  edification  which  Wran- 
gel  had  instituted  are  indorsed  by  the  provision  that  the 
pastors  should  be  allowed  during  the  week  to  hold  meet- 
ings for  edification  and  admonition.  This  points  clearly 
to  a  provision  somewhat  difTerent  from  that  which  Boltzius 
employed  in  his  daily  services  in  Georgia.  The  sacra- 
ments are  to  be  administered  to  those  who,  at  least  accord- 
ing to  the  outward  signs,  seem  qualified.  The  pastors  are 
authorized,  according  to  God's  Word,  to  forbid  the  com- 
munion to  those  guilty  of  gross  sin.  They  are  not  to  re- 
fuse to  visit  the  sick,  as  soon  as  they  are  informed  and 
called  for.  The  instruction  of  the  children,  both  publicly 
and  privately,  is  made  an  important  part  of  their  duty. 
They  are  also  to  have  the  supervision  of  the  schools  and 
of  the  church  library.  They  are  to  preside  at  or  attend  all 
the  meetings  of  the  congregations.  The  meetings  of  synod, 
called  "  the  annual  general  church  assembly,"  or  ''  con- 
vention of  regular  ministers,"  they  are  required  to  attend, 
unless  their  absence  be  justified  by  the  most  urgent  neces- 
sities, and  they  are  also  required  to  aid  in  supplying  vacant 
"  United  Congregations."  No  minister  or  student,  not 
examined,  or  regularly  ordained  and  called  "  according  to 
our  evangelical  church  government,"  is  permitted  to  fill 


CONGREGATIONAL    CONSTITUTION.  265 

the  pulpit;  but  the  pastors  are  permitted  to  allow  "regu- 
larly- called  united  pastors  on  a  visit  to  preach  for  them, 
for  the  encouragement  of  the  congregation."  Pastors 
must  be  chosen  on  nomination  of  the  church  council,  after 
a  trial  sermon,  and  by  a  concurrent  vote  of  two  thirds  of 
the  council  and  two  thirds  of  the  congregation ;  an  excep- 
tion, however,  is  made  if  there  be  a  difficulty  to  find  a 
pastor  in  America,  where  the  power  of  the  congregation 
may  be  transferred,  under  certain  limitations,  to  a  consis- 
torium  or  ministerium  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Europe. 
The  pastors  are  required  to  perform  their  ministerial  acts 
according  to  the  liturgy  already  introduced,  "  until  the 
United  Ministerium  and  the  congregations  regard  it  neces- 
sary and  profitable  to  provide  a  better  one." 

The  perpetual  right  of  the  congregation  to  elect  its 
officers  is  estabhshed.  The  church  council  is  made  to 
consist  of  the  fourteen  trustees,  six  elders,  and  six  deacons 
(yorsteJier),  the  two  pastors  being  included  in  the  trustees. 
The  trustees  were  to  be  chosen  for  Hfe,  or  until  they  should 
prove  themselves  incompetent,  or  should  resign.  In  1791 
this  provision  was  changed  so  as  to  make  the  church  coun- 
cil consist  only  of  the  pastor,  the  elders,  and  the  deacons. 
The  first  constitution  provided  that  all  trustees,  elders,  and 
deacons  in  office  at  the  time  when  it  was  prepared  should 
be  continued — the  trustees  as  above,  and  the  rest  until 
their  successors  should  be  elected  for  a  term  of  three  years. 
The  church  council,  on  the  day  before  each  election,  nom- 
inated three  times  as  many  candidates  as  there  were 
vacancies  to  fill,  and  the  election  was  then  made  from 
these  candidates  by  the  congregation.  In  case  one  elected 
declined,  he  was  expected  to  pay  "  a  considerable  dona- 
tion "  into  the  treasury.  Decisions  in  all  important  matters 
must  be  made  by  two  thirds  of  the  church  council  and 
confirmed  by  two  thirds  of  the  congregation. 


266  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xvi. 

"  The  duties  of  the  ruHng  elders  are,  among  others,"  the 
setting  of  a  good  example ;  the  maintenance,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  pastors,  of  pure  doctrine  and  sound  discipline ; 
the  payment  of  congregational  debts,  both  principal  and 
interest ;  providing  for  the  support  of  the  pastors  ;  super- 
intending the  keeping  of  accounts  and  their  submission 
to  the  trustees  for  audit;  attending  the  school  examina- 
tions, and  selecting  one  of  their  number  as  a  delegate 
to  synod.  "The  duties  of  the  vorstcJicr  [deacons]  are, 
among  others,"  the  setting  of  a  good  example  ;  assistance 
at  public  and  special  services,  at  the  administration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and  in  the  visitation  of  the  sick;  gathering 
of  the  offerings  and  paying  them  to  the  elders ;  maintain- 
ing good  order  at  pubHc  worship ;  collecting  pew  rents ; 
etc.  No  complaints  against  pastors  or  other  officers  were 
to  be  entertained  unless  sustained  by  two  or  three  credible 
witnesses. 

The  rights  of  members  were  to  be  conceded  only  to  those 
who  were  baptized  ;  who  received  the  Lord's  Supper;  who 
lived  a  Christian  life  ;  who  w^ere  not  engaged  in  any  disrepu- 
table occupation ;  who  contributed  according  to  ability  to 
the  support  of  the  church,  "  be  it  little  or  much,  though  it 
were  only  a  cup  of  cold  water"  ;  and  who  allowed  them- 
selves "  to  be  corrected  in  brotherly  love  "  when  they  do 
wrong.  1 

This  constitution  Is  a  lineal  descendant  of  that  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  Amsterdam,  through  probably  four 
sources:  i.  Through  the  constitution  of  St.  Mary's  Savoy 
Church,  London,  which  is  a  revision  of  that  of  Amsterdam. 
2.  Through  the  constitution  of  the  Georgia  congregations, 
which  depends  upon  that  of  Savoy.     3.  Through  the  con- 

1  Constitution  is  printed  in  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten, "  old  ed.,  pp.  962- 
971 ;  condensed  translation  in  Dr.  Schmucker's  "  Organization  of  the  Con- 
gregation," etc. ;  also,  "  Lutheran  Church  Review"  for  July,  1887. 


THE  FIRST  LITURGY.  26 J 

stitution  of  the  Swedish  churches  in  Pennsylvania  and  Del- 
aware, organized  in  the  seventeenth  century  by  Fabritius 
after  the  model  of  the  Dutch  church  in  New  York  which 
he  had  served.  4.  Through  Muhlenberg's  pastorate  in  the 
Dutch  Church  in  New  York  in  1751  and  1752. 

Great  stress  is  laid  in  the  synodical  as  well  as  the  con- 
gregational constitution  upon  the  uniform  use  of  a  liturgy. 
This  was  one  of  the  principal  topics  which  occupied  the 
attention  of  the  first  meeting  of  the  synod  in  1 748.  The 
liturgy  then  adopted,  which  all  were  pledged  to  use  in 
their  congregations,  was  not  published  until  in  the  recent 
edition  of  the  Halle  *'  Reports,"  ^  but  was  current  among 
the  pastors  in  manuscript.  The  history  of  this  liturgy  has 
been  traced  by  the  most  learned  of  Lutheran  liturgiologists 
in  America,  the  late  Dr.  B.  M.  Schmucker.^  In  a  paper 
presented  before  the  synod  in  1754  and  then  sent  to  Halle, 
to  which  reference  has  been  made  before,  Muhlenberg, 
Brunnholtz,  and  Handschuh  state  concerning  it  that  they 
had  made  the  Hturgy  of  the  Savoy  Church,  London,  its 
basis,  ''because  we  had  no  other  at  hand."^  It  became, 
however,  a  matter  of  surprise  to  this  most  competent  of 
liturgical  critics  to  find  that  the  Pennsylvania  liturgy 
shows  little  dependence  upon  the  Savoy  liturgy,  but  very 
closely  follows  a  family  of  Saxon  and  North  German  lit- 
urgies. With  these  liturgies,  which  vary  little  from  one 
another,  Muhlenberg's  life  in  Germany  had  made  him  famil- 
iar. They  are  the  Liineburg  order  of  1643,  used  at  his 
home  at  Eimbeck ;  the  Calenberg  of  1569,  used  at  Got- 
tingen  during  his  student  days ;  the  Brandenburg-Magde- 

1  Pages  211  sqq.  The  Order  of  Morning  Service  is  translated  and  printed 
from  Goering's  MSS.  by  Dr.  C.  A.  Hay,  in  his  "  Memoir  of  Goering,  Loch- 
man,  and  Kurtz,"  pp.  43  sqq, 

2  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  16-27,  1 61-172. 

3  Cf.  supplementary  statement  in  note  from  Muhlenberg's  MS.,  "  Hal- 
lesche  Nachrichten,"  new  ed.,  p.  449. 


268  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xvi. 

burg  of  1739,  used  at  Halle  while  he  resided  there;  and 
the  Saxon  of  i  7 1 2,  which  he  used  when  pastor  at  Grosshen- 
nersdorf  and  which  Zinzendorf  also  had  at  hand  during  his 
career  as  Lutheran  pastor  and  superintendent  in  Philadel- 
phia. As  only  the  Savoy  liturgy  was  at  hand,  the  order 
of  the  various  parts  adopted  was  reproduced  from  memory. 
Of  the  five  variations  which  Dr.  Schmucker  has  traced, 
there  is  only  one  which  is  of  any  importance.  A  hymn 
of  invocation  takes  the  place  of  the  introit,  and  the  con- 
fession of  sin  precedes  the  kyrie.  A  similar  confession  of 
sin  occurs  in  the  Calenberg  and  Saxon  orders  after  the 
sermon.  Possibly  the  order  of  the  Royal  Chapel  in  Lon- 
don, where  Ziegenhagen  was  pastor,  and  in  use  also  in 
Georgia,  where  a  German  translation  of  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer  was  adopted,  suggested  the  change  of  place. 
The  confessional  prayer  is  that  found  in  the  Calenberg 
liturgy. 

This  order  was  undoubtedly  gradually  formed  during 
the  preceding  years  of  the  activity  of  the  pastors  before 
its  final  shape  as  prepared  at  Providence  (April  27-29, 
1 748)  and  presented  to  the  synod  in  1 748,  We  know  that 
in  the  preceding  year  almost  the  same  form  was  given  to 
Schaum  when  catechist  at  York.^  "  We  had  heretofore 
used  a  brief  formula,  but  had  nothing  fixed  and  agreed 
upon  in  all  points,  since  we  were  awaiting  the  arrival  of 
more  laborers,  and  to  become  better  acquainted  with  the 
circumstances  of  the  country." 

Concerning  this  order,  the  liturgical  scholar  before 
quoted  says : 

The  service  reproduced  in  Pennsylvania  is  the  old,  well-defined,  conserva- 
tive service  of  the  Saxon  and  North  German  liturgies.  It  is  indeed  the  pure 
biblical  parts  of  the  service  of  the  Western  Church  for  a  thousand  years 

1  "  Evangelical  Review,"  vol.  vii.,  p.  544;  "Lutheran  Diet"  (1877), 
P-  133- 


THE  LITURGY  OF  174S.  269 

before  the  Reforipation,  with  the  modifications  given  it  by  the  Saxon  Re- 
formers. It  is  the  service  of  widest  acceptation  in  the  Lutheran  Church  of 
middle  and  north  Germany,  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden.  ...  It  is 
very  fortunate  for  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America  that  the  fathers  gave 
them  at  the  beginning  so  pure  and  beautiful  an  Order  of  Service.! 


Referring  to  the  revision  of  this  service  as  finally  pub- 
lished in  1 786,  the  same  writer  says : 

These  alterations  in  the  Morning  Service  are  all  of  a  piece.  Every  one  of 
them  is  an  injury  to  the  pure  Lutheran  type  of  the  old  service.  The  chaste 
liturgical  taste  of  the  fathers  has  become  vitiated ;  the  accord  of  spirit  with 
the  church  of  the  Reformation  is  dying  out  gradually.  The  service  of  the 
church  is  sinking  slowly  toward  the  immeasurable  depths  into  which  it  after- 
ward fell.  The  Order  of  Service  of  1748  is  beyond  comparison  the  noblest 
and  purest  Lutheran  service  which  the  church  in  America  prepared  or  pos- 
sessed until  the  publication  of  the  Church  Book.  2 

We  append  a  translation  of  this  service,  kindly  furnished 
by  Dr.  C.  W.  Schaeffer,  who  had  prepared  it  for  a  portion 
of  the  EngHsh  translation  of  the  '*  Hallesche  Nachrichten  " 
ye^  to  be  published. 

CHURCH    AGENDA    (LITURGY)    OF    1 748. 

[The  Agenda  of  1748  was  never  printed;  but  each  pastor  provided  himself 
with  a  written  copy  for  his  own  use.  Two  of  these  copies  came  into  the 
hands  of  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  J.  W.  Richards  of  Reading,  who  himself  was  a 
descendant  of  the  patriarch  Muhlenberg.  The  oldest  and  most  complete 
copy  came  down  from  the  hands  of  Pastor  JACOB  van  Buskerk,  and  is  from 
the  year  1763.  It  has  the  chapters  and  paragraphs  numbered,  while  the 
ritual  and  liturgical  appointments  are  complete.  The  other  copy  is  from  the 
hand  of  Pastor  Peter  Muhlenberg,  who  was  in  Dunmore  County,  Va.,  at 
the  time  when  this  copy  was  written,  that  is,  in  1769.  Here  the  chapters 
and  paragraphs  are  not  numbered.  The  directions  for  the  several  divisions 
are  not  given  in  full ;  but  the  liturgical  material  is  complete. 

What  we  here  furnish  in  print  is  taken  from  the  copy  of  Pastor  Van  Bus- 
kerk, and  varies  from  it  only  in  certain  unimportant  parts,  that  have  been 

1  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  i.,  p.  171  sq. 

2  /did.,  vol.  i.,  p.  22. 


2  70  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xvi. 

somewhat  confused,  the  correction  being  supplied  from  the  copy  of  Peter 
Muhlenl:)erg.      Notice  of  these  variations  is  always  given. 

All  the  contents  of  the  Liturgy  are  given,  in  regular  order ;  yet  only  the 
more  important  parts  are  printed  in  full.] 

CHAPTER   I. 

THE   MANNER   IN   WHICH    PUBLIC   WORSHIP    SHALL   BE   CONDUCTED   IN   ALL 
OUR   CONGREGATIONS. 

^   I. 
When  the  pastor  enters  the  church  the  worship  shall  begin  with  the  singing 
of  the  hymn  "  Nun  bitten  wir  den  Heiligen  Geist,"  either  entire,  or  several 
verses  of  it;  or  a  verse  of  the  hymn  "  Komm  Heiliger  Geist,  Herre  Gott." 

After  the  singing  of  the  hymn,  or  the  verse,  the  pastor  goes  to  the  altar, 
turns  his  face  to  the  congregation,  and  says  : 

Beloved  in  the  Lord! 

Thus  saith  the  High  and  Lofty  One  that  inhabiteth  eternity,  whose  name 
is  Holy :  I  dwell  in  the  high  and  holy  place,  with  him  also  that  is  of  a  contrite 
and  humble  spirit,  to  revive  the  spirit  of  the  humble,  and  to  revive  the  heart 
of  the  contrite  ones:  I  will  not  always  chide,  neither  will  I  keep  anger  for- 
ever :  only  acknowledge  thine  iniquity,  that  thou  hast  transgressed  against 
the  Lord  thy  God. 

If  we  confess  our  sins,  he  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to 
cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness. 

Accompany  me  therefore  in  making  confession  of  sins,  saying : 

I,  a  poor  sinner,  confess  unto  God,  my  heavenly  Father,  that  I  have  griev- 
ously and  in  various  ways  sinned  against  him ;  not  only  by  outward  and  gross 
sins,  but  much  more  by  inward  blindness  of  heart,  unbelief,  doubt,  despond- 
ency, impatience,  pride,  selfishness,  carnal  lusts,  avarice,  envy,  hatred,  and 
malice,  and  by  other  sinful  passions  which  are  naked  and  open  in  the  sight 
of  my  Lord  and  God,  but  which  I,  alas !  cannot  so  fully  understand.  But  I 
do  sincerely  repent,  in  deep  sorrow,  for  these  my  sins ;  and  with  my  whole 
heart  I  cry  for  mercy  from  the  Lord,  through  his  dear  Son  Jesus  Christ, 
being  resolved,  with  the  help  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  amend  my  sinful  life. 
Amen. 

Lord  God  the  Father  in  heaven,  have  mercy  upon  us.  Lord  God  the 
Son,  Redeemer  of  the  world,  have  mercy  upon  us.  Lord  God  the  Holy 
Ghost,  have  mercy  upon  us  and  grant  us  Thy  peace.     Amen. 

After  the  confession  the  hymn  "AUein  Gott  in  der  Hoh  sei  Ehr  "  shall 
be  sung. 


THE   LITURGY  OF  174S.  2JV 

During  the  singing  of  the  last  verse  the  pastor  goes  to  the  altar,  turns  his 
face  to  the  congregation,  and  says  : 
The  Lord  be  with  you. 
The  congregation  responds: 
And  with  thy  spirit. 
The  pastor  says  : 
Let  us  pray. 

Then  he  prays  in  the  words  of  the  collect  which  is  appointed  for  the  Sun- 
day or  the  festival,  in  the  Marburg  Hymn-book.  After  the  collect  the  lesson 
from  the  epistle  shall  be  read,  being  introduced  with  the  following  words  : 

Let  us  devoutly  listen  to  the  reading  of  the  lesson  for  this  day,  from  the, 
etc. 

^  5- 

Then  shall  be  sung  the  principal  hymn,  selected  by  the  pastor,  from  the 
hymns  in  the  Marburg  Hymn-book — one  familiar  to  the  whole  congregation. 
The  whole  hymn,  or  only  a  part  of  it,  shall  be  sung,  as  circumstances  may 
decide. 

After  the  singing  of  the  principal  hymn  the  gospel  lesson  shall  be  read, 
being  introduced  M'ith  the  same  words  as  before  the  epistle.  After  the  gos- 
pel the  pastor  repeats  devoutly  the  creed,  in  verse,  "  Wir  glauben  all."  If 
children  are  present  to  be  baptized,  the  gospel  and  the  creed  are  omitted. 

Before  the  sermon  the  hymn  "  Liebster  Jesu,  wir  sind  hier,"  or  "  Herr 
Jesu  Christ,  dich  zu  uns  wend,"  is  sung,  either  entire  or  in  part. 

Ordinarily,  the  sermon  shall  be  limited  to  three  quarters  of  an  hour,  or,  at 
the  utmost,  to  one  hour.  If  the  pastor  is  moved  to  have  an  exordium  or  a 
series  of  supplications  before  he  begins  the  Lord's  Prayer,  he  is  at  liberty  to 
do  so.  After  the  Lord's  Prayer,  as  usual,  [the  gospel  is  read?]  during  which 
reading  the  congregation  shall  stand.  The  sermon  being  concluded,  nothing 
else  shall  be  read  than  the  appointed  church-prayer  here  following,  or  the 
litany  instead  of  it,  by  way  of  change ;  and  nothing  but  necessity  shall  occa- 
sion its  omission.   .   .   . 

After  the  general  prayer  petitions  for  the  sick  shall  follow,  in  case  request 
has  been  made  to  that  eflfect ;  then  shall  follow  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  then 
whatever  proclamation  and  notices  may  be  required.  When  all  is  done,  the 
pastor  closes  with  the  votum : 

The  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding,  keep  your  hearts  and 
minds,  through  Christ  Jesus,  unto  eternal  life.     Amen. 

M- 
[This  paragraph  is  taken  from  the  copy  of  Peter  Muhlenberg.] 
Then  a  hymn  shall  be  sung.     After  the  sermon  and  the  closing  hymn  the 
pastor  goes  to  the  altar  and  says  : 


5 72  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xvi. 

The  Lord  be  with  you. 

Cong.  Resp.  And  with  thy  spirit. 

Pastor,  Let  us  pray. 

Hold  us  up,  O  Lord,  Lord  our  God,  that  we  may  live ;  and  let  our  hope 
never  make  us  ashamed.  Help  us  by  thy  might,  that  we  may  wax  strong; 
and  so  shall  we  ever  delight  ourselves  in  thy  statutes,  through  Jesus  Christ 
thy  dear  Son,  our  Lord.     Amen. 

After  the  sermon  in  the  afternoon  shall  be  sung  the  hymn  "Ach,  bleib  bei 
uns,  Herr  Jesu  Christ."     Then  shall  follow 

The  Benediction, 
The  Lord  bless  thee  and  keep  thee,  and  give  thee  peace,  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     Amen. 

Then  a  verse  shall  be  sung  at  the  close. 

CHAPTER   IL 

OF    BAPTISM    AND    WHAT    IS    TO    BE    OBSERVED    AT    ITS    ADMINISTRATION. 

[This  agrees,  nearly  word  for  word,  with  the  printed  Liturgy  of  1786.] 
CHAPTER    in. 

OF    PROCLAIMING   THE    BANS. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

OF   CONFESSION   AND   THE   HOLY   COMMUNION. 


Ordinarily,  whenever  circumstances  admit  of  it,  the  Supper  of  the  Lord 
shall  be  administered  on  Christmas,  on  Easter,  on  Pentecost.  It  may  also 
be  administered  at  other  times,  as  the  necessities  of  the  congregation  may 
demand. 

The  pastor  shall  give  notice  from  the  pulpit  of  the  administration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  one  week  or  two  weeks  before  the  time  of  its  celebration. 
To  this  notice  he  shall  add  a  short  exhortation,  and  at  the  same  time  he  shall 
inform  the  people  as  to  the  day  when  they  shall  report  themselves  to  him 
and  have  their  names  recorded. 

The  pastor  shall  keep  a  register  of  the  communicants,'  which  is  to  continue 
in  the  care  of  the  congregation. 

In  case  the  pastor  should  know  that,  among  those  who  call  upon  him  to 
report  their  names  for  the  Holy  Communion,  there  is  one  or  more  who  are 
living  in  strife,  or  occasioning  public  scandal,  and  his  own  influence  should 


THE  LITURGY  OF  174S.  2/3 

not  be  sufficient  to  remedy  the  evil,  he  may  call  ths  vestry  of  the  congrega- 
tion together,  and  direct  such  offenders  to  appear  before  them,  with  their  plea 
and  answer. 

§5. 

On  the  day  before  the  administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  at  the  hour 
appointed  by  the  pastor,  the  communicants  shall  all  assemble  in  the  church, 
when  the  following  order  shall  be  observed : 

1.  A  penitential  hymn,  or  a  hymn  suited  to  the  object  of  the  meeting,  shall 
be  sung. 

2.  After  the  hymn  the  pastor,  speaking  from  the  pulpit,  exhorts  the  peo- 
ple to  repentance ;  and  in  the  application  makes  use  of  what  he  may  have 
observed  and  learned  about  their  spiritual  state  at  the  time  when  they  reported 
their  names. 

3.  After  the  Lord's  Prayer  the  pastor  reads  aloud  the  names  of  the  com- 
municants that  have  been  reported  to  him. 

4.  After  the  reading  of  the  names  a  verse  is  sung,  and  the  pastor  goes 
before  the  altar  and  receives  and  writes  the  names  of  those  persons  w-ho,  for 
satisfactory  reasons,  could  not  report  themselves  before. 

5.  Then  the  pastor  calls  upon  the  male  communicants  first,  to  come  before 
him,  and  addresses  to  them  the  following  questions  : 

I  now  ask  you,  in  the  presence  of  the  omniscient  God,  and  upon  the  testi- 
mony of  your  own  conscience  : 

I,  2.  [The  first  two  questions  have  been  retained  unchanged  in  all  subse- 
quent editions  of  the  Pennsylvania  Liturgy.] 

3.  I  ask  you :  Whether  you  are  fully  resolved,  with  the  help  of  God,  to 
yield  yourselves  entirely  to  the  gracious  direction  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  his 
word ;  in  order  that  by  the  power,  the  help,  and  the  grace  of  the  same,  sin 
may  be  subdued  in  you,  the  old  man  with  his  evil  deeds  and  corrupt  affections 
be  weakened  and  overcome  by  daily  sorrow  and  repentance,  and  that  you  may 
win  a  complete  victory  over  the  world  and  all  its  allurements? 

If  this  be  your  serious  purpose,  confess  it  and  answer.  Yes. 

4.  Finally,  I  ask  you :  Whether  any  one  of  you  yet  has,  in  his  heart,  any 
complaint  against  another? 

6.  After  these  questions  are  answered  then  the  pastor  and  all  of  them  to- 
gether kneel  down,  when  one  of  the  communicants  leads  in  repeating  the 
confession  of  sin  aloud,  the  pastor  himself  adding  a  short  ejaculation  thereto. 

[The  copy  of  Van  Buskerk  has  no  form  of  confession  for  this  act ;  but  the 
Muhlenberg  copy  supplies  the  following.] 

I,  a  poor  sinner,  confess  unto  God,  my  heavenly  Father,  that  I  have  griev- 
ously and  in  various  ways  sinned  against  him,  not  only  by  outward,  etc.  ;  •  .  • 
with  the  help  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  amend  my  sinful  life.  Amen.  [The 
same  as  under  §  2.] 

7.  The  pastor  pronounces  the  absolution  in  the  following  words  : 

Upon  this  confession  of  sin  which  you  have  now  made,  I,  a  minister  of 
my  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  hereby  declare,  to  all  them  who  are  truly  penitent  and 


2  74  ^^-^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xvi. 

heartily  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  are  sincerely  resolved,  in  heart,  to  amend 
their  lives  and  daily  to  grow  in  grace,  to  them  I  declare  the  forgiveness  of  all 
their  sins ;  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Amen. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  I  declare  to  all  who  are  impenitent,  to  the  hypo- 
critical as  well  as  the  openly  ungodlv,  and  I  testify,  by  the  Word  of  God, 
and  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  that  so  long  as  they  continue  in  their  impenitent 
state,  loving  sin  and  hating  righteousness,  God  will  not  forgive  their  sins, 
but  retains  their  sins  against  them,  and  will  assuredly  punish  and  condemn 
them  for  their  iniquities,  in  the  end,  except  they  turn  to  him,  now,  in  this 
day  of  grace ;  except  they  sincerely  forsake  all  their  evil  ways,  and  come  to 
Christ  in  true  repentance  and  faith ;  which  we  heartily  pray  they  may  do. 
Amen. 

Then  the  service  shall  close  with  the  singing  of  a  verse,  and  the  pastor 
pronouncing  the  benediction. 

[Here  a  leaf  is  missing  from  the  Van  Buskerk  copy,  that  contained  all  of 
the  Retentio,  after  the  words  "  openly  ungodly,"  and  the  beginning  of  the 
order  for  the  Holy  Communion.  The  missing  portions  are  supplied  from 
the  Muhlenberg  copy.  The  Van  Buskerk  copy,  which  is  defective  in  Sections 
6  and  7,  begins  again  in  Section  8.] 

THE   HOLY   COMMUNION. 

The  minister  goes  before  the  altar,  places  the  bread  and  the  wine  in  order, 
then  turns  to  the  congregation  and  says : 

Minister.  The  Lord  be  with  you. 
Congregation.    And  with  thy  spirit. 
Minister.    Let  us  lift  up  our  hearts, 
Congregation.   We  lift  them  up  unto  the  Lord. 
Minister.    Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth. 
Congregation.   The  whole  world  is  full  of  his  glory. 

$8. 
Before  the  communion  the  pastor  addresses  the  communicants  in  the  ex- 
hortation here  following. 

Beloved  in  the  Lord  ! 

[Here  follows  Luther's  Paraphrase  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  his  exhorta- 
tion to  the  sacrament,  exactly  as  it  occurs  in  his  "  Deutsche  Messe  "  (Ger- 
man Communion)  of  1526.] 

The  pastor  turns  his  face  to  the  bread  and  wine,  and  repeats  the  Lord's 
Prayer  and  the  words  of  institution. 

Let  us  pray :  Our  Father,  etc. 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  the  night  ...   in  remembrance  of  me. 


THE   LITURGY  OF  1748.  2  75 

§   lO. 
Then  the  pastor  turns  to  the  congregation  and  says : 

Now  let  all  those  who  are  found  to  be  prepared,  by  the  experience  of  sin- 
cere repentance  and  faith,  approach,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  receive 
the  Holy  Supper. 

$  II. 
In  giving  the  bread  the  pastor  shall  say  these  words : 

Take  and  eat:  this  is  the  true^  body  of  your  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  given  unto 
death  for  you ;  may  this  strengthen  you  in  the  true  faith  unto  everlasting  life. 
Amen. 

In  giving  the  cup  : 

Take  and  drink ;  this  is  the  true  blood  of  your  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  of  the 
New  Testament,  shed  for  you  for  the  forgiveness  of  your  sins,  unto  everlast- 
ing life.     Amen. 

%  12. 

The  communion  being  finished,  the  pastor  shall  say : 

Oh  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  for  he  is  good :  Hallelujah. 

The  congregation  responds : 

And  his  mercy  endureth  forever :  Hallelujah. 

Then  the  pastor  says  the  following  collect : 

We  give  thee  thanks,  O  gracious  God,  our  heavenly  Father,  because  thou 
hast  refreshed  us  with  these  thy  salutary  gifts ;  and  we  humbly  beseech  thee 
to  strengthen  us,  through  tha  same,  in  faith  toward  thee,  and  in  fervent  love 
toward  one  another,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  and  Saviour.     Amen. 

Receive  the  blessing  of  the  Lord. 

The  Lord  bless  thee  and  keep  thee,  etc.     Amen. 

In  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.    Amen. 

CHAPTER   V. 

THE    BURIAL    OF    THE    DEAD. 

[This  form  is  much  more  extended  than  what  occurs  in  later  editions.] 

With  this  the  interesting  liturgy  of  1748  comes  to  an 
end.  Both  copies  have  forms  for  baptism  and  for  the 
marriage  ceremony  taken  from  the  prayer-book  of  the 
Church  of  England.  The  Muhlenberg  copy  has  also  a 
German  translation  of  the  morning  prayer  and  the  form 
for  marriage  as  found  in  the  Anglican  liturgy. 

1  The  insertion  of  "  tfue  "  was  a  concession  to  Revs.  Wagner,  Stoever, 
etc.     See  Mann's  "Life  of  Muhlenberg,"  pp.  185  sqq. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

RELATION    OF    MUHLENBERG   AND    HIS    ASSOCIATES 
TO    OTHER    COMMUNIONS. 

The  entire  life  and  activity  of  the  founders  of  the 
Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  were  such  as  could  admit  of 
no  doubt  concerning  their  fidelity  to  the  Lutheran  Church. 
They  were  Lutherans  in  cioctrine,  in  practice,  in  spirit. 
It  was  not  their  calling  to  be  scholastic  theologians,  or  to 
spend  their  time  in  detecting,  classifying,  and  arranging 
the  various  specimens  of  error  current  around  them  in  the 
different  forms  of  religious  life  in  the  New  World.  They 
were  practical  men,  endeavoring  to  meet  the  demands  of 
a  great  crisis.  But,  at  the  same  time,  they  never  allowed 
their  confessional  position  to  be  concealed.  Everywhere 
and  at  all  times  they  spake  and  taught  and  preached  as 
Lutherans.  They  never  could  have  maintained  friend- 
ship with  any  one  at  the  price  of  being  silent  concern- 
ing any  Lutheran  doctrine,  or  of  being  regarded  not  true 
to  the  full  consequences  to  which  their  confession  com- 
mitted them.  They  were  not  the  highest  models  of  the 
full  joyousness  of  the  Christian  life  and  the  sense  of  lib- 
erty in  bondage  to  faith,  found  in  Christ's  service,  such  as 
the  first  period  of  the  Reformation  produced.  Their  judg- 
ment was  by  no  means  infallible.  In  some  more,  in  others 
less,  and  in  Muhlenberg  more  in  his  earlier  than  in  his 
later  years,  the  weaker  elements  of  Pietism  may  be  traced. 
But  this  only  colored,  it  did  not  destroy,  their  Lutheran 
character.     The  discriminative  biographer  of  Muhlenberg 

276 


THE   LIMITS   OF  LIBERALITY.  2'J'J 

has  well  said  it  is  a  question  *'  whether  without  the  Pie- 
tistic  element  in  his  spiritual  framework  he  would  have  been 
that  warm-hearted,  self-denying,  energetic,  and  humble 
servant  in  the  cause  of  the  Master.  Pietism  was  the  form 
under  which,  in  those  years,  warm-hearted  godliness  almost 
exclusively  existed  in  Germany.  .  .  .  He  could  not  abso- 
lutely escape  the  influence  of  its  weaker  points ;  its  strong 
ones  never  found  a  worthier  or  a  more  energetic  and  suc- 
cessful representative."  ^  But  in  another  publication  he 
has  also  said :  "  Beyond  any  possible  doubt,  Muhlenberg 
was  by  no  means  blind  as  to  the  weak  points  and  the 
dangerous  one-sidedness  of  Pietism."  ^ 

The  perfect  naturalness  and  frank  sincerity  of  their 
Lutheran  convictions  made  them  indifl"erent  to  inferences 
from  their  conduct,  concerning  which  others  would  have 
been  more  painfully  exact,  whose  regard  for  the  reputa- 
tion of  maintaining,  might  sometimes  exceed  their  regard 
for  the  real  possession  of  the  Lutheran  faith.  They  were 
not,  on  the  one  hand,  men  of  such  broad  liberality  as  to 
ignore  the  existence  of  ecclesiastical  distinctions ;  their 
pulpits  were  occupied  only  by  ministers  authorized  and 
indorsed  by  the  pastors  of  the  United  Congregations.  No 
one,  not  even  members  of  their  own  congregations,  received 
the  Lord's  Supper  without  a  personal  conference  with  the 
pastor.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  they  were  not  only 
courteous  but  cordial,  and  sometimes  even  intimate,  with 
many  Christians  outside  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  Their 
very  fidehty  to  the  Lutheran  faith  rendered  them  glad  to 
recognize  the  most  vital  and  important  elements  in  that 
faith  wherever  found. 

Where  the  zeal  of  men  led  them  into  schemes  for  what 
was  regarded  as  overthrowing  or  confusing  the  faith  of 

1  "  Life  and  Times  of  Muhlenberg"  (Mann),  p.  393. 
^  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  v.,  p.  157. 


278  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xvii. 

Lutheran  Christians,  or  of  leading  them  from  its  care  and 
supervision,  no  reputation  for  devotion  to  Christ  sheltered 
them  against  the  condemnations  of  these  loyal  Lutheran 
pastors.  Muhlenberg,  Acrelius,  and  Wrangel  are,  for 
these  reasons,  most  pronounced  in  their  declarations 
against  Moravianism.  To  Muhlenberg,  Zinzendorf — what- 
ever might  be  his  conceded  excellences — appeared  to  be 
the  very  incarnation  of  confessional  indifferentism,  and  of 
the  unionism  which  ignored  the  historical  development  of 
the  church  upon  fixed  principles.  All  the  friendship  he 
showed  to  others  was  upon  the  assumption  that  they  were 
as  faithful  to  the  confessional  position  of  their  churches  as 
he  was  to  his. 

His  intimate  relation  with  the  ministers  of  the  Church 
of  England  can  be  readily  explained.  The  Lutherans  and 
EpiscopaHans  had  like  legal  recognition  as  churches,  while 
other  denominations  were  without  it.  In  England  the 
accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover  had  rendered  friend- 
ship to  Lutheranism  more  than  usually  cordial.  The 
relation  of  Ziegenbalg  to  the  Church  of  England  and  to 
the  Lutherans  in  America  formed  a  common  bond.  The 
intimacy  between  the  Swedes  and  the  representatives  of 
the  Church  of  England  must  also  be  taken  into  consider- 
ation. There  was  no  rivalry  or  conflict.  The  Church  of 
England  never  thought  of  sending  German  missionaries  to 
the  German  or  Swedish  missionaries  to  the  Swedish  Luth- 
erans. The  regularity  of  the  call  and  commission  of  the 
pastors  from  Halle  was  never  questioned  among  them. 
Muhlenberg  wrote  to  the  Lutherans  of  Nova  Scotia  in 
1 771,  that  he  had  preached  in  an  Episcopal  Church,^  and 
the  language  may  mean  that  he  did  so  more  than  once. 
His  junior  contemporary,  successor,  and  son-in-law,  wrote 
in  1797  : 

1  In  Roth's  "Acadie  and  the  Acadians,"  p.  297. 


MUHLENBERG  AND   EPISCOPALIANS.  279 

There  is  not  a  great  difference  in  point  of  doctrine  in  all  the  Protestant 
churches.  .  .  .  With  the  Church  of  England,  however,  the  Lutherans  have 
and  ever  had  a  closer  connection  than  with  others,  owing  to  a  more  perfect 
similarity  in  church  government,  festival  days,  ceremonies,  and  even  some 
particulars  in  doctrine.  The  Episcopalian  Church,  indeed,  does  not  call 
itself  after  Luther's  name ;  but  even  the  church  called  the  Lutheran  has  not 
that  name  by  legal  and  public  sanctions.  In  public  acts  it  is  called  the  Evan- 
gelical Church.  .  .  .  The  Reformed  Church  of  England  was,  under  Edward 
VL  and  Queen  Elizabeth,  so  modeled  and  modified  that  it  bore  the  nearest 
relation  to  the  church  established  in  Sweden,  Denmark,  Saxony,  Prussia, 
Hanover,  Wiirtemberg,  etc.  The  Lutherans  have  bishops,  superintendents, 
seniors,  and  inspectors.  The  Thirty-nine  Articles  fully  agree  with  the 
Augustan  Confession,  and  every  Lutheran  can  subscribe  them.  The  two 
German  chaplains  at  St.  James  use  a  German  translation  of  the  English 
liturgy.  The  King  of  Great  Britain,  as  a  Lutheran,  is  the  head  of  the 
Church  of  Hanover,  and  one  of  his  princes,  on  this  account,  is  entitled  to  the 
bishopric  of  Osnaburg.  At  the  accession  of  George  L  the  agreement  of  both 
churches  was,  by  a  conference  of  English  and  German  divines,  investigated 
into  and  pronounced  to  be  as  perfect  as  possible,  which  removed  the  doubts 
of  their  king,  who  is  said  to  have  declared  that  he  would  not  renounce  his 
religion  for  a  crown,  l 

We  have  before  noticed  the  circumstances  under  which 
there  may  have  been,  for  a  short  time,  some  disposition  on 
the  part  of  the  Halle  missionaries  to  have  welcomed  some 
sort  of  organic  union  with  the  English  Church.  This  was 
in  no  way  influenced  by  any  doubt  of  the  validity  of  their 
ministry,  or  with  the  view  of  renouncing  their  character 
as  Lutherans.  As  we  Igok  back,  the  inconsistency  of  that 
temporary  position  seems  more  and  more  surprising, 
especially  in  men  who  could  expose  so  well  the  fallacy  of 
a  similar  scheme  on  the  part  of  Zinzendorf.  Had  they 
entered  the  Church  of  England  they  would  have  persuaded 
themselves  that  they  were  so  doing  while  remaining  true 
to  the  faith  of  their  church.  Muhlenberg's  position,  there- 
fore, was : 

Our  nearest  and  best  friends  and  well-wishers  are  the  upright,  pious  teach- 
ers, elders,  and  members  of  the  Established  Church.  They  love,  protect, 
and  stand  by  us  wherever  they  can,  and  we  in  turn  do  for  them,  out  of  love, 

1  Preface  to  "  Six  Sermons  of  Lawrence  V.  Buskerk,"  vol.  i.,  p.  5. 


28o  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xvii. 

whatever  lies  in  our  power.  They  favor  us  and  give  us  perfect  liberty,  ac- 
cording to  the  Word  of  God,  both  to  teach  and  to  live  according  to  the  articles 
of  our  faith.  We  accord  to  them,  cheerfully,  the  preference,  because  they 
have  the  mother-church  which  is  established  by  law.  Their  articles  of  faith 
have  been  extracted  from  the  Word  of  God  as  well  as  ours  ;  their  church 
prayers  are  taken  from  the  Holy  Bible  as  well  as  ours  ;  they  have  the  two 
holy  sacraments,  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  as  well  as  we ;  their  ex- 
planations of  their  articles  of  faith  are  as  good  Evangelical  Lutheran  as  one 
could  wish  them  to  be ;  in  a  Avord,  the  doctrines  of  the  English  Established 
Church  are  more  closely  allied  to  ours  than  those  of  any  other  denomination 
in  the  wide  world.  We,  therefore,  have  always  studied  to  live  in  harmony 
with  them.^ 

The  great  founder  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America 
was  giving  away  far  more  than  he  was  conscious  of. 

The  reports  of  the  EngHsh  missionaries  and  others  to 
the  authorities  in  London  contain  a  number  of  references 
to  a  possible  union  with  the  Lutherans.  The  EngUsh 
Church  in  Pennsylvania  was  numerically  weak,  and  felt 
greatly  its  relative  insignificance.  Thus  a  report  to  the 
Bishop  of  London,  in  1761,  states  that  out  of  280,000 
white  inhabitants  65,000  were  church  people,  and  then 
adds,  in  a  footnote,  that  of  these  40,000  were  Swedes  and 
German  Lutherans,  *'  who  reckon  their  service  the  same 
as  that  of  the  church."^  \\\  1764  Thomas  Barton  wrote 
to  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  Religion  in  Foreign 
Parts,  that  the  German  Lutherans  "  had  frequently  in 
their  coetuses  proposed  a  union  with  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land." This  statement  is  an  error.  The  "  coetus  "  was  a 
German  Reformed  body.  Had  there  been  any  synodical 
action,  we  would  be  able  to  trace  it.  It  may  have  been 
incidentally  introduced  in  the  discussions.      He  continues : 

Several  of  the  clergy  with  whom  I  have  conversed  are  desirous  of  address- 
ing his  Grace,  my  Lord  Bishop  of  Canterbury,  and  my  Lord  Bishop  of  York 

1  Letter  to  Nova  Scotia  (Nov.  15,  1771),  Roth's  "Acadie  and  the  Aca- 
dians,"  p.  296  sq. 

2  Quoted  in  Wilberforce's  "  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  America," 


WR ANGEL  REMOVED.  28 1 

upon  this  subject.  .  .  .  The  Germans  in  general  are  well  affected  to  the 
Church  of  England,  and  might  easily  be  brought  over  to  it.  A  law  obliging 
them  to  give  their  children  an  English  education  .  .  .  would  soon  have  this 
effect.  1 

When,  in  1766,  Brycelius  went  to  London  to  receive 
from  the  Church  of  England  what  would  be  regarded  by- 
it  a  more  vaHd  ordination,  in  order  to  labor  among  the  Ger- 
mans in  Nova  Scotia,  Provost  Smith  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  suggested  to  the  Bishop  of  London  that  to 
make  such  a  requirement  of  the  Lutherans  in  America  was 
very  impolitic ;  and  respectfully  submitted  the  question  as 
to  whether  they  could  not  be  received  ''  without  this."  ^ 

When  Dr.  Wrangel  was  recalled  to  Sweden,  it  occa- 
sioned a  great  stir  among  the  Swedish  churches.  Nearly 
three  years  transpired  before  he  left.  His  close  connection 
with  the  German  ministers  and  active  participation  in  all 
their  movements  seem  to  have  been  unsatisfactory  to  his 
Swedish  colleagues,  and  to  have  induced  the  complaints 
which  brought  to  him  very  unexpectedly,  in  May,  1765,  a 
letter  of  recall.  The  members  of  his  congregations  resented 
the  act  of  the  Swedish  authorities  as  an  unjustifiable  inter- 
ference. There  was  much  said  concerning  renouncing  all 
allegiance  to  a  foreign  church  which  assumed,  without  a 
trial,  to  tear  away  a  beloved  pastor  from  a  people  devotedly 
attached  to  him,  and  with  whom  he  was  wiUing  to  spend 
his  life.  It  was  seriously  proposed  to  petition  the  Bishop 
of  London  to  take  the  congregations  of  Wicaco,  King- 
sessing,  and  Upper  Merion  into  his  care,  and  ask  him  to 
appoint  Dr.  Wrangel  as  the  pastor,  ''  to  officiate  conform- 
ably to  the  Hturgy  of  the  Church  of  England."  ^     When 

1  "  Papers  Relating  to  the  History  of  the  Church  in  Pennsylvania,"  by 
William  Stevens  Perry,  D.D.  (1871),  p.  367. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  412. 

3  Resolutions  (not  offered)  from  Muhlenberg's  diary.  "  Lutheran  Church 
Review,"  vol.  xii.,  p.  199. 


282  THE  LUTHERANS,  [Chap.  xvii. 

Dr.  Wrangel  left,  he  went  home  by  way  of  England,  car- 
rying with  him  an  important  letter  of  introduction  to  the 
Bishop  of  London  from  the  Rev.  Richard  Peters.  We  do 
not  know  whether  Wrangel  was  informed  of  the  contents 
of  the  letter,  and,  therefore,  whether  it  correctly  states 
Wrangel's  position.  The  project  may  have  been  to  unite 
the  smaller  body  with  the  great  body  of  Lutherans,  and 
to  have  obtained  the  sanction  of  the  Bishop  of  London  to 
this.     The  one  theory  is  as  plausible  as  the  other. 

Dr.  Wrangel  wants  to  take  a  just  advantage  of  this  general  antipathy  to  the 
Presbyterians,  and  to  unite  the  great  body  of  Lutherans  and  Swedes  with  the 
Church  of  England,  who,  you  know,  are  but  few  and  in  mean  circumstances 
in  this  province,  but,  were  they  united  with  the  German  Lutherans,  we  should 
both  become  respectable.  This  Dr.  Smith  and  I  think  may  be  done  by  the 
means  of  our  academy.  We  might  have  a  professorship  of  divinity  opened 
in  it  wherein  German  and  English  youth  might  be  educated,  and  by  having 
both  languages  as  a  part  of  their  education  they  might  preach  both  in  Ger- 
man and  English  in  such  places  where  there  is  a  mixture  of  both  nations. 
This  would  conciliate  us  all  and  make  us  live  and  love  as  one  nation.  It  is 
a  happy  thought.  I  wish  your  lordship  would  talk  with  Dr.  Wrangel  and 
encourage  it  all  you  can.i 

Twelve  years  later,  when  the  Revolutionary  War  had 
severed  the  connection  from  the  mother-church,  and  Epis- 
copahanism  in  Pennsylvania  was  reduced  to  the  merest 
shadow,  application  was  made  to  the  senior  of  the  Minis- 
terium  of  Pennsylvania,  by  the  Perkiomen  parish  of  Epis- 
copahans,  for  advice  concerning  the  manner  in  which  to 
procure  a  properly  ordained  rector.  A  young  man  (Mr. 
John  Wade)  was  sent  to  him  for  examination.  Having 
found  him  *'  sound  in  doctrine,  agreeable  with  the  Thirty- 
nine  Articles  of  the  Church,"  and  **  tolerably  versed  in 
reading  and  explaining  parts  of  the  New  Testament  in 
Greek,"  Muhlenberg  (August  6,  1779)  urged  that  he  be 
chosen  by  the  parish.     The  ordination,  he  suggests,  could 

1  Ibid.,  p.  433. 


MUHLENBERG    ON  EPISCOPACY.  283 

be  procured  from  *'  a  united  Protestant  ministry  "  as  well 
as  from  the  Episcopacy.  His  precise  words  are  of  impor- 
tance, since  they  express  very  clearly  his  opinion  concern- 
ing the  office  and  prerogatives  of  diocesan  bishops,  and 
showed  that  whatever  may  have  been  his  inclination  at 
times  for  a  union  between  the  bodies,  it  was  not  in  any 
way  determined  by  any  preference  for  Episcopal  authority. 

The  further  examination  and  ordination  may  be  easily  obtained,  if  not  by  a 
bishop,  yet  by  a  regular  united  Protestant  ministry,  which  is  the  nearest 
related  to  your  Episcopal  Church.  For  it  is  my  humble  opinion  that  in  the 
present  critical  junctures  an  examination  and  ordination  of  a  regular  Protest- 
ant ministry  may  do  as  well  as  an  Episcopal  one.  And  since  there  is  yet  no 
Episcopal  jurisdiction  established  by  law  in  the  independent  States  of  North 
America,  why  should  congregations  be  less  destitute  of  the  necessary  means 
of  salvation,  be  neglected  and  destroyed  only  for  want  of  an  Episcopal  ordi- 
nation ?  which  is  but  a  piece  of  pious  ceremony,  a  form  of  godliness  empty  of 
power,  and  may  be  of  service  where  it  is  established  by  law,  though  it  does 
not  appertain  to  the  essential  parts  of  the  holy  function  l  itself.  In  the  Prim- 
itive Christian  Church,  the  ambassadors  and  ministers  of  Christ  could  impart 
extraordinary  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost  unto  believing  candidates  by  prayers 
and  laying  their  hands  upon  them,  but  this  prerogative  is  not  continued,  and, 
while  we  may  controvert  forever  about  apostolical  and  Episcopal  succession, 
experience  shows  too  plainly  that  neither  Episcopal  nor  ministerial  nor 
Presbyterial  ordination  doth  infuse  any  natural  and  supernatural  gifts  and 
qualities ;  otherwise  we  should  not  find  so  many  counterfeited  ministers, 
refined  hypocrites,  and  grievous  wolves  in  the  Christian  Church  on  earth. 2 

^  The  ordination  of  Muhlenberg's  eldest  son,  Rev.  (after- 
ward Major-General)  Peter  Muhlenberg,  in  London,  in 
1772,  illustrates  still  further  the  principles  which  had 
been  current  concerning  some  form  of  union  with  the 
Church  of  England.  The  younger  Muhlenberg  had  been 
called  to  the  pastorate  of  Lutheran  congregations  in  Vir- 
ginia. He  could  not  be  recognized  by  the  laws  of  that 
colony  as  a  minister,  unless  he  would  submit  to  Episcopal 

'  Muhlenberg  has  in  mind  the  German  word  "Amt,"  which  he  would 
have  expressed  more  correctly  in  English  by  "  ministry." 

2  MS.  in  Muhlenberg's  papers.  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  xii., 
p.  203  sq. 


284  ^HE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xvil. 

ordination.  For  that  purpose  he  went  to  England,  and, 
with  Rev.  Wilham  White,  afterward  Bishop  of  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church  in  Pennsylvania,  received  ordina- 
tion from  the  Bishop  of  London,  after  examination  and 
subscription  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles.  But  by  this 
transaction  it  is  wrong  to  infer  that  he  intended  to  re- 
nounce his  character  as  a  Lutheran  minister.  It  is  a 
great  inconsistency,  but  there  seems  to  have  been  an 
understanding  on  both  sides  that  this  position  was  to  be 
allowed.  During  his  stay  in  London,  before  and  after 
the  ordination,  his  associations  were  principally  with  the 
Lutheran  pastors.  Although  he  did  not  visit  the  then 
enfeebled  Dr.  Ziegenhagen  until  after  the  ordination,  and 
then  received  from  him  a  decided  protest  against  his 
course,  nevertheless  his  first  act,  on  reaching  London, 
was  to  report  to  Dr.  Wachsel  of  St.  George's  Lutheran 
Church.  Five  of  the  six  Sundays  that  he  spent  in 
London,  he  attended  morning  service  in  one  of  the 
Lutheran  churches.  He  preached,  after  his  ordination, 
not  in  one  of  the  English  churches,  but  in  the  Savoy 
Lutheran  Chapel.  The  most  frequent  names  in  his 
journal  are  those  of  Revs.  Wachsel,  Burgmann,  and 
Pasche.i  It  ought  to  be  enough  that,  years  afterward, 
he  wrote : 

Brethren,  we  have  been  born,  baptized,  and  brought  up  in  the  Evangelical 
Lutheran  Church.  Many  of  us  have  vowed  before  God  and  the  congrega- 
tion, at  our  confirmation,  to  live  and  die  by  the  doctrine  of  our  church.  In 
the  doctrine  of  our  church  we  have  our  joy,  our  brightest  joy ;  we  prize  it  the 
more  highly  since,  in  our  opinion,  it  agrees  most  with  the  doctrine  of  the 
faithful  and  true  witnesses  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  We  wish  nothing 
more  than  that  we  and  our  children  and  our  children's  children  and  all  our 
posterity  may  remain  faithful  to  this  doctrine. 2 

1  Journal  of  Rev.  Peter  Muhlenberg,  1772.  "  Lutheran  Church  Review," 
vol.  iv.,  p.  294  sq. 

2  Signed  as  president  to  a  circular  to  the  members  of  the  Evangelical 
Lutheran  Church  of  Philadelphia,  March  14,  1804. 


WHAT  IS   ORDINATION?  285 

The  whole  aim  seemed  to  be  to  obtain  a  recognition  of 
the  legitimacy  of  the  separate  organization  of  the  Lu- 
theran Church  in  America  on  the  part  of  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  in  England.  This  was  especially  induced  by 
the  impending  change  of  language.  ^While  the  congrega- 
tions were  German,  there  was  less  need  of  such  formal 
recognition ;  but  as  the  English  language,  which  the 
younger  Muhlenberg  had  preached  statedly  in  New  Jer- 
sey, was  entering,  some  recognition  of  the  entire  regular- 
ity of  the  Lutheran  organizations  was  deemed  by  some  a 
matter  of  importance.  Such  it  was  to  a  greater  extent  in 
Virginia  than  in  Pennsylvania.  However  it  may  be  ex- 
plained, it  is  clear  that  those  thus  ordained  regarded  them- 
selves none  the  less  Lutheran  than  before.  Dr.  Kunze 
says : 

The  bishops  of  London  have  never  made  a  difficulty  to  ordain  Lutheran 
divines,  when  called  to  congregations  w^hich,  on  account  of  being  connected 
with  English  Episcopalians,  made  this  ordination  requisite.  Thus  by  bishops 
of  London  the  following  Lutheran  ministers  were  ordained :  Bryselius,  Peter 
Muhlenberg,  Illing,  Hauseal,  and  Wagner.  The  last-mentioned  was  called, 
after  having  obtained  this  ordination,  to  an  Evangelical  Lutheran  congrega- 
tion in  the  Margraviate  of  Anspach  in  Germany. 

There  has  always  been  within  the  Lutheran  Church, 
since  the  controversy  concerning  Frederus  .at  the  Refor- 
mation period,  a  difference  of  opinion  concerning  the 
nature  of  ordination.  We  must,  therefore,  understand 
those  Lutheran  pastors  who  submitted  to  Episcopal  ordi- 
nation as  not  holding  a  very  high  position  concerning  the 
rite.  They  probably  regarded  it,  according  to  a  very 
widespread  view,  simply  as  a  confirmation  of  the  call  of 
their  churches,  and  deemed  it  very  appropriate  if  that  call 
would  receive  the  widest  recognition  and  confirmation 
possible.  They  had  no  question  as  to  the  validity  of  their 
preceding  Lutheran  ordination,  and  might,  even  after  re- 
ceiving ordination  at  London,  have  resorted  to  Halle  for 


286  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xvii. 

a  similar  ceremony  if  it  would  have  been  deemed  expedi- 
ent. The  nephew  and  biographer  of  Peter  Muhlenberg 
gives  us  one  of  the  chief  reasons  for  resorting  to  the 
Bishop  of  London :  **  In  order  that  he  could  enforce  the 
payment  of  tithes."  ^ 

Amidst  the  embarrassments  of  the  Revolutionary  War, 
Rev.  William  White,  the  organizer  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church,  requested  a  conference  with  the  Ministerium 
of  Pennsylvania  with  reference  to  a  union.  The  minutes 
of  1 781  state  that  his  request  was  complied  with.  The 
synod  acted,  however,  with  great  caution.  The  confer- 
ence did  not  form  a  part  of  the  proceedings,  or  occur  in 
connection  with  the  sessions.  Mr.  White  was  invited  to 
meet  the  pastors  in  Dr.  Helmuth's  house,  where  no  result 
followed  the  friendly  interview.  Dr.  H.  M.  Muhlenberg, 
Hartwig,  Krug,  Voigt,  Schultze,  Helmuth,  Schmidt,  Van 
Buskirk,  Kunze,  and  the  two  younger  Muhlenbergs  (F. 
A.  and  H.  E.)  were  the  more  prominent  members  at  this 
session.  Two  years  later,  Mr.  Wade,  above  mentioned, 
was  examined  by  the  ministerium  and  recommended  to 
study  during  the  succeeding  year  under  Muhlenberg,  Sr., 
Schmidt,  Helmuth,  Kunze,  and  Streit,  with  especial  refer- 
ence to  the  doctrines  of  baptism,  the  Lord's  Supper,  and 
predestination.^  Mr.  Wade  afterward  became  the  first 
Episcopal  associate  rector  of  the  Swedish  churches. 

The  pastors  of  the  first  period  of  the  ministerium  were 
on  friendly  relations  with  Whitefield.  Dr.  Wrangelinter- 
ested  himself  in  securing  for  him  an  invitation  to  meet 
with  the  members  of  the  ministerium  during  the  sessions 
of  1763.'^  In  urging  this  proposition  Wrangel  did  not 
forget  the  collections  which  Whitefield  had  made  in  Eu- 

^  "  Life  of  Major-General  Muhlenberg,"  by  H.  A.  Muhlenberg,  p.  34. 

2  MS.  in  "  Minutes  of  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania"  (1783),  p.  7. 

3  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  old  ed.,  p.  1122. 


IVHITEFIELD   PREACHES  IN  ZION'S.  287 

rope  for  the  Impoverished  Salzburgers.  The  presence  of 
a  man  who  had  pleaded  eloquently  in  English  pulpits  for 
contributions  to  build  Lutheran  churches  in  Georgia,  and 
with  that  eminent  success  which  Benjamin  FrankHn  has 
noted  in  a  well-known  passage  in  his  autobiography,  cer- 
tainly deserved  recognition,  even  apart  from  Whitefield's 
services  in  awakening  life  in  the  Church  of  England  and 
in  America.  1  But  he  was  not  in  any  way  an  advisory 
member  of  the  synod.  He  was  present  at  the  examina- 
tion of  the  children  of  St.  Michael's  Church  before  the 
synod,  made  a  fervent  prayer  and  an  edifying  address. 
On  the  next  day  he  bade  the  synod  farewell,  and  re- 
quested the  prayers  of  its  members.^  The  next  year  he 
was  in  attendance  at  the  funeral  of  Pastor  Handschuh. 
In  1770  (May  27th)  he  preached  by  special  invitation  in 
Zion's  Church.^  As  the  circumstances  have  been  the 
subject  of  dispute,  Muhlenberg's  journal  may  here  state 
the  facts. 

Friday,  May  25th.  .  .  .  Because  I  could  not  do  otherwise,  I  wrote  a  few 
lines  to  Rev.  Mr.  Whitefield,  stating  if  he  would  preach  for  me  on  next  Sun- 
day night  in  Zion's  Church  it  would  be  acceptable  to  me. 

Sunday,  May  27th.  .  .  .  Early  in  the  evening  Zion's  Church  was  filled 
with  English  and  Germans  of  religions  of  all  sorts.  We  two  preachers  went 
to  Mr.  Whitefield's  lodging  and  took  him  with  us  to  the  church,  which  was 
so  crowded  that  we  had  to  take  him  in  through  the  tower  door.  .  .  .  He 
complained  of  cold  and  hoarseness  contracted  at  the  morning  service,  but 
preached  with  considerable  acceptance  from  2  Chron.  vii.  I,  "Of  the  outer 
and  the  inner  glory  of  the  house  of  God,"  He  introduced  some  impressive 
remarks  concerning  our  fathers — Francke  and  Ziegenhagen,  etc.* 

1  "  He  was  an  evangelist  of  forgotten  or  ignored  doctrines  of  the  gospel;  a 
witness  excluded  from  many  pulpits  of  his  own  church  because  of  his  earnest- 
ness in  preaching  the  truth  ;  in  some  sense  a  martyr.  This  invested  him  with 
interest  in  the  eyes  of  our  fathers,  and  his  love  to  the  Lutheran  Church  and 
his  services  to  it  made  him  very  dear." — Dr.  C.  P.  Krauth,  "  Proceedings  of 
First  Lutheran  Diet,"  p.  290. 

2  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  old  ed.,  p.  131. 

3  Mann's  "  Life  of  Muhlenl^erg,"  p.  406. 

*  MS.  in  "Archives  of  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania." 


288  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xvii. 

Rev.  Richard  Peters,  also  a  clergyman  of  the  Church 
of  England,  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  Muhlenberg's  house, 
and  preached  in  his  pulpit,  both  at  The  Trappe  ^  and,  in 
1 769,  at  the  consecration  of  Zion's  Church,-  in  the  presence 
of  the  ministerium.  At  the  latter  occasion,  all  of  "  the 
high-church"  clergy  were  present  in  their  vestments,  and 
the  prayers  were  read  by  Rev.  Mr.  Duchee,  Dr.  Muhlen- 
berg concluding  the  service  with  an  address. "^  The  same 
year  Muhlenberg  was  made  one  of  the  trustees  of  the 
Society  for  the  Relief  of  Widows  and  Children  of  Clergy- 
men of  the  same  church. 

Of  the  Presbyterians,  the  names  of  the  two  Tennents, 
Gilbert  and  William,  appear  most  frequently  among  the 
friends  of  Muhlenberg.  At  a  dinner  which  the  members 
of  the  ministerium  had  in  common  during  the  meeting  of 
1763,  Rev.  Gilbert  Tennent  presided,  and,  as  the  account 
says,  ''  refreshed  us  with  his  edifying  discourse."  "*  Presi- 
dent Finley  of  Princeton  College  was  also  present.  When 
Muhlenberg  took  temporary  charge  in  New  York  City,  he 
visited  the  clergymen  of  the  principal  churches  and  an- 
nounced his  presence  and  purposes.  Among  those  with 
whom  he  thus  becamie  acquainted,  and  who  returned  his 
visits,  was  Rev.  Ebenezer  Pemberton,  D.D.  A  long  argu- 
ment they  had  on  repentance  and  faith,  and  as  to  whether 
the  Lutheran  definitions  were  sufficiently  accurate,  has  been 
recorded.^ 

With  Rev.  Michael  Schlatter,  who  was  to  the  Reformed 
churches  of  Pennsylvania  what  Muhlenberg  was  to  the 
Lutheran,    there    was    a    thorough    understanding.     The 

1  "  Hallesche  Nachricliten,"  old  ed.,  p.  850. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  1247  sq. 

3  For  various  explanations  of  these  facts,  see  discussions  in  "  Proceedings 
of  First  Lutheran  Diet,"  pp.  283-291. 

4  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  old  ed.,  p.  1 129. 

5  Und.,  p.  459. 


MICHAEL   SCHLATTER.  289 

month  after  his  arrival,  in  1 746,  Schlatter  visited  Muhlen- 
berg at  The  Trappe,  in  order  to  advise  with  him.  No 
shadow  seems  to  have  ever  darkened  their  friendship, 
amidst  circumstances  where  nothing  would  have  been 
easier  than  a  collision  and  a  break.  Schlatter  married  a 
daughter  of  one  of  the  most  prominent  Lutheran  laymen, 
Henry  Schleydorn,  who  has  already  been  mentioned  sev- 
eral times.  At  Muhlenberg's  funeral  Schlatter  was  among 
the  mourners.  How  they  strictly  maintained  the  confes- 
sional distinctions  without  destroying  their  cordiality  and 
cooperation  is  illustrated  by  an  incident  at  Barren  Hill  in 
I  762.  The  Lutheran  pastor  conducted  service  in  the  then 
partly  built  church,  and  preached  to  his  own  congregation, 
and  to  a  number  of  the  Reformicd  who  were  present  to 
receive  the  Lord's  Supper.  After  the  sermon  the  Re- 
formed pastor  made  a  communion  address.  The  audience 
was  then  dismissed,  the  Reformed  repairing  to  the  school- 
house,  where  Schlatter  administered  the  communion  to  his 
own  people.^  The  evils  of  union  churches  Muhlenberg 
appreciated  and  describes ;  ^  but  did  not  hesitate  to  allow 
the  Reformed  to  use  one  of  his  own  churches  at  times 
when  it  would  otherwise  be  unoccupied.^  He  preached 
the  funeral  sermon  of  the  Reformed  pastor  Steiner,  in 
Philadelphia.'*  Never  hesitating  to  enter  the  pulpits  of 
other  denominations  where  there  was  no  warfare  against 
or  antagonism  to  his  own  church  or  denial  of  its  truly 
Scriptural  character,  he  was  faithful  at  the  same  time  in 
preaching,  maintaining,  and  defending  the  Word  of  God 
as  taught  in  the  Lutheran  confessions ;  but  he  had  too 
high  a  regard  for  the  pulpit  to  make  it  a  place  in  which 
to  exhibit  polemical  zeal. 

1  "  Hallesche  Nachricliten,"  old  ed.,  p.  895  sq.  2  Ibid.,  p.  227  sq. 

3  Mann's  "Life  of  Muhlenberg,"  p.  452. 

4  Ibid.,  p.  390;  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  old  ed.,  p.  922  sq. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

INTERNAL    AND    EXTERNAL    GROWTH  ;     DECLINE    OF 
THE    SWEDISH    CHURCHES. 

Steadily,  above  and  beneath  all  the  discouragements 
and  seeming  confusion,  the  Lutheran  Church  was  growing 
in  numbers  and  in  organization.  New  congregations  were 
formed,  and  new  laborers,  however  inadequate  to  what 
seemed  necessary,  were  added.  Muhlenberg  towers  above 
all  his  contemporaries,  not  simply  as  a  leader  but  also  as 
the  spokesman  of  his  brethren.  It  must  not  be  imagined 
that  his  will  and  preference  determined  in  all  things  the 
course  of  the  united  pastors  amidst  the  circumstances  by 
which  Providence  surrounded  them.  He  knew  how  to 
follow,  and,'  for  this  reason,  he  knew  also  how  to  lead. 
There  were  certain  fixed  principles  with  respect  to  which 
he  was  as  firm  as  adamant ;  as  to  the  mode  of  their  appli- 
cation, he  was  a  most  careful  student  of  the  circumstances 
of  time  and  place,  and  of  the  gifts,  the  attainments,  the 
expressed  wishes,  and  even  the  prejudices  of  those  with 
whom  he  dealt.  His  most  cherished  plans  repeatedly  en- 
countered most  effectual  checks ;  but  he  knew  how  to 
revise  his  plans  and  to  utilize  new  elements,  which  his 
experience  was  constantly  teaching  him.  Defeats  only 
summoned  him  to  concentrate  his  powers  in  a  new  direction. 
Every  detail  of  the  situation  was  not  only  kept  in  view, 
but  faithfully  recorded  in  his  journal.  From  the  recon- 
vening of  the  synod,  in  1760,  there  was  no  further  break 
in  its  meetings.      It  lost  its  exclusively  Hallean  type  by 

290 


MUHLENBERG'S   COTEMPORARIES.  29 1 

the  introduction  of  some  who  had  previously  been  outside 
of  the  circle,  with  the  result  that  charges  against  which 
Muhlenberg  had 'to  contend  from  without  he  then  had  to 
meet  within  the  synod.  This  was  seen  in  the  defense 
which  he  most  successfully  made  against  the  formal  com- 
plaints of  Rev.  Lucas  Rauss  in  1761,  who  questioned  his 
Lutheran  character.  It  only  brought  from  him  the  em- 
phatic words : 

I  defy  Satan,  and  all  the  lying  spirits  who  serve  him,  to  prove  against  me 
anything  in  conflict  with  the  doctrine  of  the  apostles  and  prophets  and  of  our 
symbolical  books.  I  have  often  and  again  said  and  written  that  I  have  found 
in  our  Evangelical  doctrine,  founded  on  the  apostles  and  prophets  and  set 
forth  in  our  symbolical  books,  neither  error,  fault,  nor  anything  wanting. 

The  names  of  the  chief,  contemporaries  of  Muhlenberg 
are :  Peter  Brunnholtz,  pastor  in  Philadelphia,  arrived 
1744,  died  1757;  John  Frederick  Handschuh,  pastor  at 
Lancaster,  Philadelphia,  and  Germantown,  born  17 14,  ar- 
rived 1748,  died  1764;  John  Nicholas  Kurtz,  pastor  at 
Tulpehocken  and  York,  arrived  1 744,  died  1 794 ;  John 
Henry  Schaum,  pastor  in  New  Jersey,  at  York,  and  in 
Bucks,  Montgomery,  Lehigh,  and  Berks  counties,  Pa.,  ar- 
rived 1744,  died  1 7 18;  John  Albert  Weygand,  pastor  in 
New  Jersey  and  New  York  City,  arrived  1 748,  retired 
1767,  died  before  May,  1770;  Lucas  Rauss,  assistant  in 
Philadelphia,  catechist  on  the  Hudson,  pastor  at  York  and 
in  Montgomery  County,  Pa.,  born  1724,  arrived  1749,  died 
1788  ;  John  Siegfried  Gerock,  a  Wiirtemberger,  and,  there- 
fore, most  probably  a  relative  of  the  great  Wiirtemberg 
preacher  and  poet  of  the  present  century,  pastor  at  Lan- 
caster, New  York,  and  Baltimore,  arrived  1753,  died  1787; 
Bernard  Michael  Hausihl  (Hauseal),  pastor  at  Frederick, 
Md.,  Reading,  and  New  York,  born  1727,  arrived  1752  or 
1753,  died  1799,  his  loyalty  to  the  British  having  caused 


292  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xviii. 

his  removal  to  Nova  Scotia  during  the  Revolutionary 
War,  where  he  officiated  as  an  ordained  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England,  in  virtue  of  an  ordination  in  England 
in  1785,  and,  at  the  same  time,  like  Peter  Muhlenberg,  as 
a  Lutheran  pastor  ;i  John  George  Eager,  pastor  first  in  the 
Palatinate,  then  in  Lebanon  and  York  counties,  Pa.,  New 
York  and  Baltimore,  born  1725,  arrived  1752,  died  1791  ; 
J.  D.  M.  Heintzelmann,  associate  pastor  in  Philadelphia, 
arrived  175 1,  died  1756;  Frederick  Schultz,  associate  at 
New  Hanover,  pastor  in  Montgomery  County,  and  in 
Nova  Scotia,  arrived  1751,  in  secular  pursuits,  and  not 
regarded  a  successful  pastor;  WiUiam  Kurtz,  a  younger 
brother  of  J.  Nicholas,  pastor  at  Tohicon,  New  Holland,  and 
Tulpehocken,  arrived  1754,  ordained  1761;  C.  F.  Wild- 
bahn,  licensed  1762,  the  former  part  of  his  ministry  being 
spent  at  Frederick,  Md.,  and  in  York  County,  Pa.,  and  the 
latter  at  Reading,  from  1782  ;  John  Andrew  Krug,  pastor 
in  Reading,  Pa.,  and  Frederick,  Md.,  son-in-law  of  Hand- 
schuh,  arrived  1764,  died  1796;  John  L.  Voigt,  pastor  at 
Germantown,  and  in  Chester  and  Montgomery  counties. 
Pa.,  arrived  1764,  died  1800;  Christian  Emanual  Schultze, 
associate  pastor  in  Philadelphia,  and  pastor  at  Tulpehocken, 
the  son-in-law  of  Muhlenberg  and  father  of  the  Rev.  and 
afterward  Governor  John  Andrew  Schultze,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, arrived  1765,  died  1809;  John  George  Jung,  pastor 
in  Franklin  County,  Pa.,  and  Washington  County,  Md., 
arrived  1 768  ;  Justus  H.  Chr.  Helmuth,  pastor  at  Lancaster 
and  Philadelphia,  born  1745,  arrived  1769,  died  1825; 
John  Frederick  Schmidt,  pastor  at  Germantown  and  Phila- 
delphia, born  1746,  arrived  1769,  died  181 2;  John  Chris- 
topher Kunze,  pastor  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York, 
son-in-law  of  Muhlenberg,  born  1744,  arrived  1770,  died 
1807.  Of  these,  J.  N.  Kurtz,  Schultze,  Helmuth,  and 
1  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten, "  new  ed.,  notes,  p.  635. 


A   NATIVE  MINISTRY.  293 

Kunze  have  left  the  deepest  impression  upon  the  succeed- 
ing history  of  the  church.  The  descendants  of  these  pas- 
tors have  accompHshed  much,  not  only  for  the  church  their 
fathers  came  to  serve,^  but  have  been  eminent  in  litera- 
ture, in  science,  and  in  the  politics  of  the  country.  A  few 
have  also  been  prominent  in  another  communion.  Nor 
must  it  be  forgotten  that  the  pioneer  German  missionary 
in  Pennsylvania,  John  Caspar  Stoever,  whose  service  on  the 
territory  of  thirteen  years  prior  to  Muhlenberg  had  made 
him  averse  to  the  latter's  more  rigid  form  of  organization, 
had  united  with  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  in  i  763.2 
The  beginning  had  been  made  of  an  American  Lutheran 
ministry.  Jacob  van  Buskirk  was  the  first  Lutheran  born 
in  America  to  devote  himself  to  theological  study.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  New  York  Dutch  Lutheran  family 
which  has  already  been  mentioned,  and  of  the  congrega- 
tion at  Hackensack,  N.  J.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  his 
studying  for  the  ministry  was  one  of  the  fruits  of  Muhlen- 
berg's stay  in  New  York  and  Hackensack  during  the  sum- 
mers of  1 75  I  and  1 752.  He  was  born  in  1 739,  and  studied 
first  under  Pastor  Weygand  in  New  York,  and  then,  from 
the  close  of  1759  until  April,  1762,  with  Muhlenberg. 
After  pastorates  in  Montgomery  County,  Germantown, 
Lehigh  and  Chester  counties,  he  died  in  1800.  Rev.  Will- 
iam Graaf,  a  native  German,  studied  theology  with  Muhl- 
enberg, and  was  prepared  for  a  service  of  over  forty  years 
in  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  ending  with  his  death  in  1809. 
WilHam  Kurtz,  partially  prepared  at  Halle,  finished  his 
preHminary  education  under  the  same  teacher. 

1  An  illustration  is  found  in  the  fact  that  of  the  five  members  of  the  faculty 
of  Pennsylvania  College  when  the  writer  was  a  student  there,  four  were 
descendants  of  pastors  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  during  Muhlen- 
berg's life.  They  were  Drs.  H.  L.  Baugher  (Eager),  F.  A.  Muhlenberg, 
M.  L.  Stoever,  and  C.  F.  Schaeffer. 

^  "  Hallesche  Nachrichten,"  old  ed.,  p.  1128. 


294  ^^-^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xviii. 

After  Dr.  Wrangel  came,  this  duty  was  transferred  to 
him.  He  had  in  his  house  what  might  be  regarded  a  the- 
ological seminary  in  a  primitive  form,  with  three  students 
" — Peter  Muhlenberg,  who  had  previously  studied  in  Ger- 
many, and  took  charge  in  New  Jersey  after  being  licensed 
in  1 769 ;  Daniel  Kuhn,  son  of  a  prominent  member  of  the 
Lancaster  congregation,  and  who,  for  a  short  time,  served 
the  congregation  at  Middletown,  Pa. ;  and  Christian  Streit, 
a  member  of  one  of  the  New  Jersey  congregations,  who,  after 
entrance  into  the  ministerium  in  1769,  served  congrega- 
tions at  Easton,  Charleston,  S.  C,  New  Hanover,  and 
Winchester,  Va.  Two  other  sons  of  Muhlenberg  were 
ordained  in  1770,  after  a  thorough  training  at  Halle. 
Frederick  Augustus,  after  a  pastorate  at  Lebanon  and 
New  York,  and  founding  the  New  York  Ministerium,  be- 
came a  member  of  Congress,  and  the  speaker  of  the  first 
and  third  House  of  Representatives,  as  well  as  president 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Convention  on  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution. The  distinguished  Rev.  Dr.  William  Augustus 
Muhlenberg,  known  as  the  founder  of  St.  Luke's  Hospital 
and  an  order  of  deaconesses  in  the  Episcopal  Church, 
and  author  of  several  standard  hymns,  was  his  grandson. 
Henry  Ernst  was  only  seventeen  years  old  when  ordained. 
He  was  first  assistant  pastor  in  Philadelphia,  then  in  New 
Jersey,  then  again  in  Philadelphia,  until  he  was  driven 
thence  by  the  capture  of  the  city  by  the  British,  and  then 
pastor  at  Lancaster  from  1780  until  his  death,  in  1815. 
His  distinction  as  a  botanist  was  not  confined  to  this 
country,  and  among  his  correspondents  and  visitors  was 
Alexander  von  Humboldt. 

In  I  769  the  idea  of  the  establishment  of  a  seminary  in 
Philadelphia  was  suggested  at  the  meeting  of  the  minis- 
terium. It  gained  strength  with  the  arrival  of  so  com- 
petent a  scholar  as  Kunze  the  next  year,  who  was  subse- 


VIRGINIA.  295 

quently  professor  both  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
and  in  Columbia  College,  New  York.  An  academy  was 
established  to  lay  the  foundation,  but  the  project  vanished 
with  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  struggle,  not  to 
be  forgotten,  but  to  be  deferred  for  realization  ninety 
years  afterward.  The  Orphans'  Home  which  Muhlenberg 
had  in  view,  to  be  located  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Chestnut  Hill  or  Barren  Hill,  was  also  deferred  until 
after  the  middle  of  the  succeeding  century,  when  it  act- 
ually came  into  being  only  a  few  miles  distant  from  the 
spot  contemplated. 

The  field  had  extended  so  that,  in  1771,  Muhlenberg 
reports  in  Pennsylvania  and  in  the  adjacent  provinces  sev- 
enty congregations,  'Marge  and  small."  ^  Many  of  the 
more  enterprising  of  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  had  years 
before  pressed  toward  the  frontiers  of  their  State,  and 
then  followed  the  prolongation  of  the  fertile  Cumberland 
Valley  into  Maryland,  and  far  beyond  down  into  the 
Shenandoah  Valley  of  Virginia.  They  were  largely  fam- 
ilies springing  from  those  who  had  settled  Montgomery, 
Berks,  Lancaster,  and  York  counties,  Pa.,  strengthened  by 
immigrants  directly  from  Germany.  It  was  to  supply 
the  demands  of  this  immigration  that  Peter  Muhlen- 
berg was  called  to  the  Valley  of  Virginia  in  1772,  with 
Woodstock  as  his  home  and  the  center  of  his  field,  until, 
in  January,  1776,  he  exchanged  his  gown  for  a  colonel's 
uniform.  The  Madison  County  congregation  in  Virginia, 
for  which  the  elder  Stoever  had  made  collections  in 
Europe,  had  been  served  until  about  1761  by  Rev.  G.  S. 
Klug.  He  made  occasional  visits  to  the  Lutheran  pastors 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  complained  of  his  isolation ;  but  even 
at  that  date  the  endowment  of  the  church  seems  to  have 
been  a  hindrance  rather  than  an  advantage.     The  life  of 

1  Letter  to  Nova  Scotia,  Roth,  p.  296. 


296  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xviil. 

the  congregation  was  weak,  and  it  lost  many  members  to 
the  Dunkards.  A  schoolmaster  from  the  Paradise  con- 
gregation in  York  County,  by  the  name  of  Schwarbach, 
served  it,  and  afterward  a  Pastor  Frank  who  had  been 
teacher  in  the  Philadelphia  congregation.  Rev.  Paul 
Henkel,  as  missionary  preacher,  had  the  congregation  for 
a  time  under  his  supervision,  Henkel  was  the  great- 
grandson  of  Rev.  Gerhard  Henkel,  who  had  been  active 
in  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  during  the  second  decade  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  He  studied  with  Pastor  Krug  of 
Frederick,  and  afterward  lived  at  Newmarket,  Va.  His 
services  belong  mostly  to  a  succeeding  period. 

The  current  of  emigration  from  Pennsylvania  reached 
even  farther  south.  The  Lutherans  of  North  Carolina  had 
largely  come  thither  before  the  Revolutionary  War,  from 
about  1750,  and  settled  in  Rowan  and  Cabarras  (then 
Mecklenburg)  counties.  The  Society  for  the  Promotion 
of  Christian  Knowledge  had  taken  them  under  its  patron- 
age through  the  intercession  of  Velthusen.  Their  first 
pastors  were  Adolph  Niissmann  and  Gottfried  Arnd.  The 
former  was  a  converted  Franciscan  who  had  studied  at 
Gottingen ;  the  latter  was  a  schoolmaster  who  came  from 
Germany  with  the  former  and  was  afterward  irregularly 
ordained  in  South  Carolina.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
these  pastors  came  as  the  result  of  the  sending,  in  1773, 
of  two  laymen,  one  from  the  Organ  Church  in  Rowan 
County,  and  the  other  from  St.  John's,  Cabarras  County, 
first  to  Hanover,  where  the  interest  of  the  consistory 
was  gained,  and  then  to  London.  The  supervision  of 
the  Lutheran  Church  in  North  Carolina  was  placed  in 
the  hands  of  the  consistory  at  Hanover,  i.e.,  the  Lutheran 
consistory  under  George  HI.  of  England.  The  consti- 
tution of  St.  John's  Church,  recorded  in  the  church 
book    by   Pastor  Niissmann,   binds    the    pastor   *'  to   con- 


NORTH  AND  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  297 

fess  with  heart  and  mouth  the  symboHcal  books  of  our 
EvangeHcal  Church,"  ^  and  to  send  reports  to  Europe 
every  six  weeks.  The  order  of  pubhc  service  was :  hymn 
of  praise ;  collect  or  epistle ;  hymn ;  reading  of  Script- 
ures ;  creed  or  a  short  Sunday  hymn ;  sermon ;  a  few 
verses  of  a  hymn;  catechetical  exercise;  a  long  prayer; 
benediction ;  concluding  verse  of  principal  hymn.  The 
Marburg  Hymn-book  and  liturgy  of  the  German  Court 
Chapel,  which  we  have  before  seen  to  have  been  a  trans- 
lation of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  were  to  be  used. 2 
At  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  consistory  of 
Hanover  paid  to  these  congregations  the  collections  that 
had  been  made  for  them  while  communication  had  been 
cut  off. 

At  Charleston,  S.  C,  Boltzius  had  administered  the 
Lord's  Supper  in  1734,  and  Muhlenberg  had  preached  in 
1 742,  but  a  congregation  was  not  founded  until  1 755.  The 
first  pastor  was  Rev.  J.  G.  Friederichs,  for  a  period  of 
six  years,  followed  for  two  years  by  Rev.  H.  S.  B.  Word- 
mann,  who  had  labored  in  Pennsylvania.  Rev.  John 
Nicholas  Martin  was  three  times  pastor  of  St.  John's — 
1763-67,  1774-78,  1786-87.  The  careers  of  Revs.  Hahn- 
baum  and  Daser  were  brief.  The  records  of  the  former 
forbid  the  pastor  to  "  be  addicted  to  the  English  Articles  " 
and  to  attack  the  Church  of  England.  The  gown,  wafers, 
the  church  festivals,  gospels  and  epistles,  and  the  use  of 
the  litany  on  Sunday  afternoons,  are  required.^  Christian 
Streit,  who  has  been  previously  mentioned,  was  pastor 
from  1778  until  driven  away  by  the  vicissitudes  of  war, 
there  being  a  tradition  of  his  arrest  by  the  British  in  1780. 
Muhlenberg  visited  the  congregation  on  his  way  to  Eben- 
ezer,  in   1774,  and  was   occupied  with   adjusting  serious 

1  Bernheim,  p.  251.  2  Ibid.,  p.  253. 

3  Horn's  "  Historical  Sketch"  (1885),  p.  5. 


298  THE  LUTHERAh^S.  [Chap,  xviil. 

difficulties,  arising  partially  from  its  unsatisfactory  organi- 
zation and  the  lack  of  a  proper  synodical  constitution. 
He  advised  it  to  petition  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of 
Christian  Knowledge  for  aid,  and  forwarded  a  copy  of  the 
petition  to  Halle.  But,  on  the  question  of  leaving  the  con- 
gregation because  of  its  unsatisfactory  condition,  he  gave 
the  following  pointed  advice  to  one  of  its  members,  by 
stating  the  rule  of  his  own  personal  course : 

During  the  thirty-two  years  of  my  sojourning  in  America,  time  and  again 
occasions  were  given  me  to  join  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  to  receive  four  or 
five  times  more  salary  than  my  poor  German  fellow-members  of  the  Lutheran 
faith  gave  me ;  but  I  preferred  reproach  in  and  with  my  people  to  the  treas- 
ures in  Egypt.  1 

At  the  time  of  this  visit  of  Muhlenberg  to  the  South,  in 
1774,  Rev.  J.  S.  Friederichs  was  laboring  in  isolation  in  the 
Orangeburg  district,  and  sought  a  personal  conference,  but, 
being  prevented,  he  was  encouraged  by  a  letter;  while 
there  were  two  pastors,  Revs.  Martin  and  Hockheimer,  in 
the  Saxe-Gotha  township  of  Lexington  County,  both  of 
whom  he  met  at  Charleston.  Rev.  Bernard  Hausihl  (Hau- 
seal),  before  mentioned,  spent  some  time  in  South  Carolina, 
between  1763  and  1765,  with  his  relatives,  but  had  no 
pastoral  charge. 

The  Lutheran  Church  in  Georgia  had  become  distracted 
by  a  controversy  between  its  two  pastors  after  Lemke 
had  died  and  Rev.  C.  F.  Triebner,  who  shortly  afterward 
married  the  daughter  of  his  predecessor,  had  taken  the 
vacant  place.  Not  only  the  authorities  at  Halle,  but  the 
Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge,  com- 
missioned Muhlenberg  in  1774  to  make  a  visitation  and 
pacify  the  contending  parties.  He  reached  Ebenezer, 
accompanied  by  his  wife  and  daughter,  in  November,  and 
remained  there  for  three  months.     The  result  of  his  inves- 

1  Letter  of  June  14,  1774,  Mann,  p.  455. 


GEORGIA.  299 

tigations  was  astonishment  at  the  blunders  made  at  Halle 
in  their  mode  of  appointments.  A  mere  novice  had  been 
placed  over  the  old  and  experienced  pastor  Rabenhorst, 
who,  in  Muhlenberg's  opinion,  was  the  very  kind  of  man 
needed  in  Pennsylvania.  No  one,  he  was  convinced,  could 
save  the  congregations  from  destruction  except  the  pastor 
who  had  been  so  greatly  wronged.  But  what  could  men 
in  Germany  know  and  advise  about  matters  in  America  ? 
The  errors  were  inevitable.  Rabenhorst  knew  the  field ; 
Triebner's  confidence  that  he  understood  it  perfectly  was 
what  might  have  been  expected  from  his  youth  and  inex- 
perience. The  open  hostility  was  removed  by  Muhlen- 
berg's efforts ;  but  the  irritation  that  had  been  produced 
continued  to  trouble  the  congregations  for  years. 

A  thorough  revision  of  the  church  constitution  was  made 
by  Muhlenberg,  and  signed  by  the  pastors  and  members 
of  the  congregations.  He  found  also  that  the  charters 
were  so  worded  that,  strictly  interpreted,  the  property 
could  be  alienated  from  the  Lutheran  to  the  Church  of 
England.  Before  he  left  Georgia  he  had  secured  from  the 
court  at  Savannah  a  change  which  protected  the  Lutheran 
interests.^ 

The  Salzburgers  suffered  much  during  the  Revolution- 
ary War.  Pastor  Rabenhorst  died  about  1777.  Pastor 
Triebner  sympathized  with  the  British,  and  left  with  their 
troops  for  England  on  the  termination  of  the  war.  The 
church  at  Ebenezer  had  been  used,  first  as  a  hospital,  then 
as  a  stable ;  the  presence  of  a  licentious  soldiery  demoral- 
ized many  of  the  people.  When  independence  was  de- 
clared, the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowl- 
edge withdrew  its  support. 

In  his  last  years,  disabled  from  active  work  and  calmly 
waiting  in  his  home  at  The  Trappe,  to  which  he  had  retired 

1  Strobel,  p.  162  sq. 


300  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xviii. 

in  1776,  for  the  call  to  enter  his  eternal  rest,  Muhlenberg's 
thoughts  were  often  and  long  upon  the  suffering  Ebenezer 
colony.  His  journals  and  correspondence  show  his  intense 
interest  that  they  should  be  provided  with  a  suitable  min- 
istry. Once  it  was  nearly  arranged  that  his  son,  Frederick 
Augustus,  should  be  the  pastor;  but  the  pressure  to  enter 
upon  a  political  career  was  too  strong,  and  instead  of  going 
to  Georgia  he  went  to  Congress.  In  1785  deliverance 
came :  Rev.  John  E.  Bergman,  a  Saxon,  a  graduate  of 
Leipzig  and  a  man  of  learning,  who,  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  his  habits  were  rather  those  of  the  student  than 
of  the  pastor,  gained  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  the 
people,  and  at  his  death,  in  1824,  left  a  precious  memory. 
He  officiated  at  Savannah  as  well  as  at  Ebenezer. 

Returning  to  Pennsylvania  and  going  northward,  the 
two  congregations  in  New  York  claim  attention.  Christ's 
Church  (the  "  High  German  "),  after  having  several  un- 
fortunate experiences,  had  been  served  for  brief  periods 
by  Revs.  Eager,  Gerock,  and  Roeller.  Frederick  Augus- 
tus Muhlenberg  was  pastor  from  1773  to  1776,  until  driven 
from  the  city  by  the  approach  of  the  British.  Of  the 
old  Trinity  Church,  Hausihl  was  pastor  from  1770  until 
1783.  The  church  building  was  burned  in  a  great  con- 
flagration in  1776.  Hausihl  was  an  ardent  loyalist,  prom- 
inent in  social  circles,  and  a  trustee  of  Columbia  College. 
On  the  evacuation  of  the  city  he  left,  with  the  larger  part 
of  his  congregation,  for  Nova  Scotia,  settling  at  Halifax, 
and  receiving  **  orders  "  from  the  Church  of  England.  In 
January,  1784,  the  remnants  of  Trinity  Church  and  Christ's 
Church  were  united  as  ''  The  Corporation  of  the  United 
German  Lutheran  Churches  in  the  City  of  New  York." 

While  pastor  in  New  York,  Frederick  Augustus  Muhlen- 
berg attempted  in  1774  to  organize  a  ministerium  for  the 
State  of  New  York.      Concerning  the  fact  that  any  meet- 


IMAIXE  AND   NOVA    SCOTIA.  3OI 

ingwas  actually  held,  we  are  in  ignorance;  but  Dr.  Kunze, 
who  ought  to  be  most  competent  authority,  declares : 

To  the  late  Dr.  Henry  Muhlenberg  belongs  the  immortal  honor  of  having 
formed  in  Pennsylvania  a  regular  ministry,  and,  what  is  somewhat  remark- 
able, to  one  of  his  sons,  who  officiated  as  Lutheran  minister  from  the  year 
1773  to  1776  in  the  city  of  New  York,  that  of  having  formed  the  Evangelical 
Ministry  of  New  York  State.  ^ 

The  thought  was  carried  out  in  1786. 

To  Waldboro',  Me.,  forty  families  or  more  of  Germans 
had  been  decoyed  by  flattering  promises  which  were  never 
fulfilled,  as  early  as  1 740.  The  French  and  Indians  cap- 
tured the  place  in  1746,  burning  the  houses  and  either 
killing  the  inhabitants  or  taking  them  to  Canada  as  cap- 
tives. Still  more  glowing  accounts  of  the  prospects 
brought  a  larger  colony,  many  of  whom  shared  a  similar 
fate  at  a  later  invasion.  Nevertheless,  throu<j-h  German 
thrift,  the  place  grew ;  but  spiritually  the  people  were  at 
the  mercy  of  adventurers.  In  1774  Hartwig  was  called 
by  them  as  pastor,  and  visited  the  settlement.  But  noth- 
ing important  was  accomplished  until  a  later  time.- 

Lutheran  emigration  to  Nova  Scotia  had  begun  about 
1750.  In  1752  a  Lutheran  congregation  in  Halifax  was 
recognized  in  a  will,  and  in  1761  St.  George's  Lutheran 
Church  was  built,  in  which  Lutherans  were  served  by  rec- 
tors of  the  Church  of  England.  The  simple-minded  peo- 
ple were  satisfied  with  a  service  in  the  German  language, 
without  regard  to  confessional  distinctions.  This  parish 
became  the  scene  of  Hausihl's  labors  after  he  left  New 
York.  Lunenburg,  whose  name  indicates  the  origin  of  a 
large  portion  of  its  people,  seems  to  have  had  no  one  who 
could  in  any  way  claim  to  be  a  Lutheran  minister,  until 

1  Kunze's  "  Hymn  and  Prayer-book  "  (New  York,  1795),  Appendix,  p.  143, 

2  Dr.  H.  N.  Pohlman,  "  The  German  Colony  and  Lutheran  Church  in 
Maine,"  "  Evangelical  Review,"  vol.  xx.,  pp.  440-462. 


302  THE  LUTHER  A  XS.  [Chap,  xviii. 

Brycelius  was  sent  thither  in  1767,  after  Muhlenberg  had 
made  various  efforts  to  have  the  place  otherwise  supplied. 
He  received  English  ordination  in  London,  in  order  to  ob- 
tain due  legal  recognition.^  But  the  people  were  dissatis- 
fied with  what  they  regarded  as  duplicity  on  his  part,  and 
held  meetings  in  order  to  procure  a  pastor  true  to  the 
faith  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  Another  correspondence 
with  Muhlenberg  followed.  Gerock  was  called,  and  de- 
clined. A  special  commissioner  was  sent  to  personally 
confer  with  Muhlenberg,  as  senior  of  the  Ministerium  of 
Pennsylvania,  for  a  member  of  that  body.  Muhlenberg 
himself  was  called,  at  the  advice  of  Rev.  Michael  Schlatter, 
and  actually  took  the  call  into  serious  consideration,  in 
1775.  Finally,  Rev.  Frederick  Schultz  was  sent  from 
Pennsylvania  in  1772,  and  served  the  Nova  Scotia  con- 
gregations for  ten  years.  His  successor,  John  Gottlob 
Schmeisser,  was  sent  by  Freylinghausen  from  Halle,  and 
remained  pastor  from  1782  to  1806.  The  testimony  given 
him  by  the  director  at  Halle  says : 

I  give  you  this  assurance  that  he  is  firm  in  the  doctrine  of  our  Evangel- 
ical Lutheran  Church,  as  it  is  grounded  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  from 
them  set  forth  in  the  Augsburg  Confession  and  the  other  symbolical  books  of 
our  church ;  and  from  the  departures  from  the  faith  now  so  common  in  Ger- 
many he  is  far  removed.  2 

The  Swedish  churches  on  the  Delaware  had  received  a 
blow  in  the  recall  of  Wrangel  from  which  they  never  re- 
covered. While  it  did  not  completely  break  their  relations 
with  the  German  pastors,  there  was  no  longer  any  inti- 
macy. It  rendered  the  younger  members  of  the  churches 
more  and  more  dissatisfied  with  the  control  exercised  over 
them  from  Sweden.      The   demand   for   English   services 

1  Brycelius  received  Episcopal  ordination  twice,  viz.,  from  the  Moravians 
in  1743,  and  in  England  in  1767. 

2  Letter  in  Roth,  p.  341. 


IVRANGEL'S  RECALL   RESENTED. 


303 


was  growing.  In  1773  two  Sundays  were  devoted  to 
English  and  the  third  to  Swedish  service  in  the  church  at 
Wilmington.  Nils  Collin,  the  last  of  the  pastors  sent  from 
Sweden,  who  arrived  in  1770,  was  alread}^  petitioning  to 
be  recalled.  Goransson,  who  had  preached  an  English 
sermon  at  the  consecration  of  the  church  of  the  Ministerium 
of  Pennsylvania  at  Pikeland,  became  provost,  and  did  not 
bring  much  dignity  to  the  position.^ 

The  spirit  of  independence  which  was  pervading  the 
country  was  felt  in  the  Swedish  congregations.  Daniel 
Kuhn,  from  the  congregation  at  Lancaster,  who,  after  hav- 
ing studied  under  Wrangel,  had  been  intrusted  with  con- 
gregations by  the  ministerium,  had  gone  to  Sweden  to 
continue  his  studies.  The  council  of  Gloria  Dei  Church 
petitioned  (May  14,  1774)  the  archbishop  and  consistorium 
in  Sweden  to  appoint  Mr.  Kuhn  as  assistant  pastor.  They 
frankly  said  that  they  wanted  *'  a  preacher  of  their  own 
choice,  and  a  native  American."  A  few  months  later,  they 
asked  that  Mr.  Kuhn  be  appointed  successor  to  their  pas- 
tor, Goransson,  who  had  announced  his  resignation.  These 
requests  were  not  granted.  The  correspondence  Is  court- 
eous, but  shows  that  the  authorities  in  Sweden  insist  upon 
retaining  the  control  of  the  appointments,  as  long  as  they 
are  expected  to  contribute  to  the  support. 

In  1 786  Collin  was  appointed  pastor  of  the  churches  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Philadelphia,  the  church  council  of 
Gloria  Dei  expressing  their  approbation,  upon  the  condi- 
tion that  the  right  of  the  congregation  to  choose  a  pastor 
**  from  this  side  of  the  water  "  should  be  respected.  Three 
years  later  the  final  break  was  effected.  A  letter  from 
the  Swedish  archbishop  of  June  25,  1789,  begins: 

As  his  Majesty  finds  satisfactory  reasons,  on  account  of  which  the  congre- 
gations shall  in  the  future  choose  their  own  preachers  from  those  born  in 

1  See  examples  from  records  in  church  registers,  Grabner,  p.  397. 


304  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xviii. 

their  country,  rather  than  have  them  provided  with  Swedish  missionaries  at 
the  expense  of  the  Swedish  crown,  his  Royal  Majesty  has  directed  me  to 
express  his  agreement  with  this  decision  of  the  congregations.! 

Permission  was  given  the  Swedish  pastors  to  return  as 
soon  as  the  necessary  arrangements  could  be  made.  Dr. 
Collin,  as  is  well  known,  remained,  dying  in  183 1. 

Whither  were  the  Swedish  churches  to  look  for  Amer- 
ican-born pastors  who  could  officiate  acceptably  in  Eng- 
lish ?  Their  first  thought  was  not  in  the  direction  in  which 
they  subsequently  went.  Of  Wrangel's  three  students, 
they  had  asked  fifteen  years  before  for  Daniel  Kuhn. 
Now  they  made  earnest  efforts  to  induce  Christian  Streit 
to  resign  his  field  at  Winchester,  Va.,  and  become  an  asso- 
ciate pastor  in  the  Swedish-American  field,  but  were  un- 
successful. As  there  was  no  American  Lutheran  minister 
to  be  had,  they  called  upon  Rev.  John  W^ade,  an  Episco- 
palian but  the  former  theological  pupil  of  Muhlenberg,  who 
had  been  examined  by  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  in 
1 78 1 ,  and  placed  under  the  care  of  the  Muhlenbergs,  Kunze, 
Helmuth,  and  Streit.  Thus  unintentionally  the  ministerium 
had  helped  the  Swedes  in  their  transition.^  Mr.  Wade  be- 
came assistant  in  the  Raccoon  or  Swedesboro  Church- in 
1788.  The  charters  in  Pennsylvania  were  changed  so  as 
to  allow  the  pastors  to  belong  to  either  the  Lutheran  or 
the  Episcopal  Church ;  and  the  Wilmington  Church,  whose 
pastor  from  i  792  was  an  Episcopalian,  soon  followed.  In 
1803  the  first  Episcopal  confirmation  at  Wilmington  oc- 
curred. Dr.  Collin  during  his  career  had  eight  Episcopal 
assistants.     The  congregations  were  independent  for  a  long 

1  Grabner,  p.  402. 

2  The  note  of  Dr.  Reynolds  in  his  translation  of  Acrelius,  p.  262,  is  liable 
to  be  misunderstood.  The  probabilities  are  that  Dr.  Reynolds  himself  had 
been  misled.  Rev.  Charles  Lute  was  a  Swedish,  not  an  American,  Episcopal 
minister.  See  Norberg's  "  Svenska  Kirka  Mission,"  p.  188  ct passim,  where 
the  name  is  given  as  Rev.  Carl  Johan  Lunt. 


AMERICAN  PASTORS  DEMANDED.  305 

time  of  any  nearer  connection  with  either  denomination. 
But  tiie  name  *'  Lutheran"  was  ehminated  after  a  genera- 
tion or  two  had  been  thus  trained.  Since  1846  the  charter 
of  Gloria  Dei  has  declared  its  full  connection  with  the 
Episcopal  Church,  and  the  rest  have  followed  the  same 
course. 

We  must  ascribe  the  loss  of  these  early  churches  not  to 
any  doctrinal,  liturgical,  or  even  linguistic  reasons.  If  pas- 
tors had  been  furnished  from  Sweden  fully  able  to  preach 
English  the  rupture  might  have  been  delayed,  but  it  would 
still  have  come.  American  ecclesiastical  interests  could 
not  be  properly  cared  for  by  consistories  and  bishops  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  A  church  to  flourish  per- 
manently in  America  must  be  supplied  with  pastors  whose 
ancestors  for  generations  have  lived  and  labored  in  Amer- 
ican congregations,  and  have  grown  into  the  knowledge  of 
the  field  from  their  earliest  childhood.  The  condition  of 
the  Episcopal  Church  in  America,  as  long  as  it  was  de- 
pendent upon  England  for  its  government  and  ministry, 
shows  that,  even  where  the  language  problem  is  not  in- 
volved, the  obstacles  to  progress  amidst  such  connections 
are  almost  insurmountable. 

We  have  gone  beyond  the  limits  of  the  present  period, 
as  the  subsequent  history  of  these  churches  was  hastening 
so  rapidly  toward  a  conclusion  as  to  justify  the  anticipa- 
tion. Our  aim  has  been  to  give  a  general  view  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  America  as  it  appeared  at  the  time  of 
the  death  of  Muhlenberg.  So  closely  was  he  identified 
with  all  its  interests,  and  so  prominently  does  he  appear 
in  all  its  parts  from  Nova  Scotia  to  Georgia,  that  the  his- 
tory of  the  church,  from  his  landing  in  1 742  to  his  death 
at  The  Trappe,  October  7,  1787,  is  scarcely  more  than  his 
biography.  For  ten  years  he  had  lived  in  partial  retire- 
ment, preaching  occasionally  as  he  was  able,  but  inces- 


306  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xviii. 

santly  active  with  his  pen  in  advising  and  directing  those 
at  a  distance.  The  same  thorough  grasp  of  all  details,  the 
same  effort  to  provide  for  congregations  and  the  synod  the 
most  thorough  organization,  the  same  pastoral  fidelity  in 
caring  for  the  spiritual  interests  of  individual  souls,  both  far 
and  near,  mark  the  close  as  well  as  the  beginning  of  his 
career.  In  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  W.  J.  Mann  he  has  had  a 
biographer  in  every  way  worthy  of  the  subject.  The  ser- 
mons preached  and  published  after  his  death  by  Dr.  J.  C. 
Kunze  in  New  York  and  J.  H.  Helmuth  in  Philadelphia, 
are  valuable  testimonies  of  the  esteem  in  which  he  was 
held  by  his  contemporaries.  The  great  interest  shown 
among  Lutherans  in  Pennsylvania  in  connection  with  the 
centennial  of  his  death  indicated  how  strong  was  the  tradi- 
tional attachment  in  the  churches  which  he  founded  and 
in  which  he  ministered.  The  old  church  which  he  built  at 
The  Trappe  still  stands,  preserved  as  nearly  as  possible  in 
the  condition  in  which  it  was  when  he  preached  from  its 
pulpit.  Under  the  shadow  of  its  wall  is  his  grave,  with 
the  appropriate  inscription : 

QUALIS    ET    QUANTUS    FUERIT 

NON    IGNORABUNT    SINE    LAPIDE 

FUTURA    SECULA. 


PERIOD    III. 
DETERIORATION, 

A.D.    1787-1817. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

RATIONALISM   AND    INDIFFERENTISM. 

Another  period  begins  with  the  death  of  Muhlenberg. 
Its  coming  may  be  clearly  traced  in  the  preceding  years, 
when  the  influence  of  the  leader  is  gradually  withdrawn 
from  active  labors.  His  younger  contemporaries  were  men 
of  the  same  spirit ;  but  the  very  fact  that  they  were  not 
compelled  to  struggle  so  hard  to  maintain  the  interests  of 
the  Lutheran  Church  prevented  them  from  rising  to  such 
heroic  undertakings,  and  also  diminished  the  rigor  with 
which  they  guarded  the  distinctive  features  of  Lutheran- 
ism.  Lutherans  they  all  were,  true  to  the  whole  body  of 
the  confessions  to  which  they  had  given  their  pledge  ;  and 
yet  they  were  inclined  to  abate  somewhat  in  reference  to 
the  mode  in  which  this  faith  should  be  defended.  They 
had  been  educated  under  another  generation  of  teachers 
at  Halle,  and  felt  the  influence  of  the  weakening,  although 
not  yet  of  the  surrender,  of  these  teachers  to  the  fast  ap- 
proaching era  of  destructive  criticism.  They  had  been 
pupils  of  Semler  in  theology,  in  the  first  stages  of  his 
career.  With  the  deterioration  that  followed  they  were 
well  acquainted,  and  looked  with  dismay  into  the  future 
that  awaited  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Germany.  Hel- 
muth,  in  whom  the  emotional  especially  predominated, 
poured  forth  his  sorrow  and  apprehensions  concerning  the 
spread  of  rationaHsm  in  a  letter  to  the  elder  Muhlenberg,  in 
1785,  which  the  latter  answered  in  an  equally  touching  let- 
ter, declaring  that  such  news  must  only  drive  one  to  prayer, 

309 


310  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

but,  at  the  same  time,  assuring  the  younger  leader  that 
all  such  error  must,  according  to  God's  Word,  at  last  dis- 
appear, and  that  only  the  truth  could  be  permanent.  "  Less 
learned  men,"  said  Muhlenberg,  "  sneered  at  Bengel's  pre- 
dictions concerning  the  approaching  end  of  the  world,  but 
nevertheless  the  times  showed  that  some  of  the  signs  of 
tlie  end  were  appearing."  ^  The  darker  grew  the  pros- 
pect, the  nearer  these  men  felt  to  all  earnest  Christians 
of  other  denominations,  and,  while  doing  so,  thought  that 
some  of  the  tests  heretofore  deemed  necessary  might  be 
removed.  That  this  was  not  done  with  sufficient  discrim- 
ination, the  result  proved.  The  founders  of  the  Minis- 
terium  of  Pennsylvania  had  not  been  extremists,  and  a 
departure  from  their  position  was,  in  the  beginning,  a  well- 
meant  but  unfortunate  compromise.  This  was  promi- 
nently manifest  in  the  revised  Synodical  Constitution  of 
1792. 

Before,  however,  this  constitution  was  adopted,  the  New 
York  Ministerium,  projected,  as  we  have  seen,  by  Freder- 
ick Augustus  Muhlenberg,  had  become  a  reality  in  1786 
(October  23d),  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Kunze.  At 
its  foundation  it  comprised  three  pastors  (Kunze,  Schwerd- 
feger,  and  Moller),  and  the  congregations  in  New  York 
and  Albany.  At  least  eight  regular  Lutheran  pastors 
within  its  te^-ritory,  with  their  congregations,  stood  aloof, 
among  whom  were  Pastor  Sommer  of  Schoharie,  son-in- 
law  of  Berkenmeyer,  who  represented  the  latter's  antipathy 
to  everything  that  came  from  Halle,  and  the  then  aged 
Pastor  Hartwig,  who  preferred  to  continue'  his  frequent 
visits  to  his  old  friends  in  Pennsylvania.  During  the  first 
ten  years  of  its  existence  it  comprised  thirteen  pastors, 
four  of  whom  came  from  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania; 

1  LeUer  of  Septeml)er  29,  1785,  in  "Archives  of  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania." 


CONSTITUTION  OF  1192,  3  I  I 

one  (Braiin)  was  a  convert  from  Romanism,  two  had  been 
pastors  in  the  island  of  Curagoa,  three  had  come  directly 
from  Germany,  where  they  had  been  educated,  and  three 
were  pupils  of  Dr.  Kunze  who  were  ordained  by  the 
synod.^  The  first  constitution  was  that  then  in  force  in 
the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  so  far  as  it  was  appli- 
cable. Of  this,  a  revision  was  made  in  1792.  A  peculiar- 
ity of  this  constitution  was  the  provision  which  it  made  for 
the  election  of  a  president  for  life.  Another  was  in  the 
introduction  of  lay  delegates  as  full  members  of  synod, 
participating  in  the  sessions  with  privileges  equal  to  those 
of  the  pastors. 

The  constitution  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  of 
1 792  was  in  part  the  work  of  the  same  hand ;  for  Dr. 
Kunze's  membership  in  the  Ministerium  of  New  York  had 
not  severed  his  connection  with  that  of  Pennsylvania.  By 
a  strange  provision  a  minister  could  belong  to  both  min- 
isteriums  at  the  same  time.  When,  therefore,  in  1791, 
the  corporation  of  Zion's  and  St.  Michael's,  Philadelphia, 
petitioned  the  ministerium  for  lay  representation  in  synod, 
Drs.  Kunze  and  Helmuth  were  appointed  a  committee  to 
prepare  a  plan  by  which  such  representation  could  be  in- 
troduced. The  result  was  the  thorough  revision  of  the 
Synodical  Constitution. 

Instead  of  *'  The  EvangeHcal  Lutheran  Ministerium  in 
North  America,"  its  sphere  was  geographically  restricted 
in  the  title  ''  Evangelical  Lutheran  Ministerium  in  Penn- 
sylvania and  the  Adjacent  States."  Instead  of  being  free 
from  all  linguistic  or  national  limitations,  it  became  the 
^^ German'''  Ministerium;  just  one  hundred  years  after- 
ward, the  word  ''  German  "  was  erased.  The  office  of 
"senior"  was  instituted  as  distinct  from  that  of  ''presi- 
dent"    Three  orders  of  ministers  were  established,  viz., 

1  Nicum,  p.  54. 


312  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

ordained  ministers,  licensed  candidates,  and  catechists. 
The  New  York  Ministerium,  the  same  year,  recognized 
the  two  former  orders  but  not  the  last.  Both  constitutions, 
in  the  same  words,  give  all  ordained  ministers  (the  officers 
excepted)  the  same  rank,  privileges,  and  titles.  "  They 
have,  therefore,  in  their  congregations  no  overseer  except 
the  above-mentioned  officers,  and  these  only  so  far  as  this 
constitution  imposed  upon  them  the  duty  of  communicat- 
ing their  thoughts  and  good  advice."  (Art.  I.,  %i.)  This 
shows  a  reaction  against  the  authority  over  "  the  United 
Congregations "  with  which  Muhlenberg  had  regarded 
himself  invested.  The  felt  want  of  ministers  is  seen  in 
the  same  section  of  both  constitutions  giving  all  ordained 
pastors  the  right  to  instruct  candidates  for  the  office.  The 
licentiate  system  is  perpetuated  from  the  former  period ; 
but  the  right  of  licentiates  to  perform  ministerial  acts  is 
limited  to  the  congregations  with  which  the  ministerium 
has  intrusted  them.  Catechists  were  prohibited  from 
confirming  and  from  administering  the  Lord's  Supper, 
but  were  placed  under  the  supervision  of  a  neighboring 
pastor,  who  performed  these  acts  as  there  was  need.  The 
licentiates,  but  not  the  catechists,  had  a  vote  at  the  meet- 
ings of  synod. 

The  most  serious  change  in  these  constitutions  is  the 
elimination  of  all  confessional  tests.  The  only  allusion, 
and  that  of  a  very  remote  character,  is  where  catechists 
are  required  to  preach  the  Word  of  God  in  its  purity, 
''according  to  the  law  and  the  gospel."  All  reference  to 
either  the  Augsburg  Confession  or  to  the  other  symboli- 
cal books,  so  prominent  in  the  first  constitution,  has  van- 
ished. But  too  much  must  not  be  inferred  from  this. 
The  congregational  constitutions  and  the  **  reverses,"  or 
confessional  pledges,  do  not  seem,  at  least  in  New  York, 
to  have  been  changed,  and  in  these  the  former  require- 


CONFESSIONAL   LAXITY.  313 

ments  remained.  In  the  New  York  MInlsterlum,  in  1793, 
Rev.  G.  H.  Pfeiffer  was  admitted  after  he  had  answered 
the  question  "  Whether  he  beheved  all  the  divine  Word 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  accepted  the  doc- 
trines of  the  symboHcal  books."  The  "  revers  "  of  Rev. 
George  Strebeck,  in  i  796,  binds  him  in  a  similar  way  to 
"  God's  Word  and  the  symbolical  books  of  our  church."  ^ 
Even  as  late  as  1805,  the  Ministerium  of  New  York  re- 
quired a  pastor  who  came  from  the  Methodists,  Rev.  R. 
Williston,  to  declare  his  acceptance  of  the  Unaltered 
Augsburg  Confession.  But  in  Pennsylvania  the  decline 
at  first  was  more  rapid.  Before  the  year  1800,  and  prob- 
ably with  the  new  constitution,  the  formula  for  the 
**  revers  "  of  catechists  had  become  only  : 

I,  the  undersigned,  promise  before  God  and  my  Chief  Shepherd,  Jesus 
Christ,  that  I  will  preach  Goa's  Word  in  its  purity,  according  to  law  and 
gospel,  as  it  is  presented,  according  to  its  chief  parts,  in  our  catechism  and 
hymn-book.  I  promise  also  diligently  to  hold  instruction  for  children,  to 
visit  the  sick,  to  feed  souls,  and  to  administer  holy  baptism  according  to  the 
order  of  Jesus  Christ. 

But,  however  insufficient  the  catechism  and  the  hymn- 
book  as  confessions,  they  were  Lutheran  standards,  and 
the  contents  of  the  Lutheran  faith  were  not  formally 
denied. 

Great  inconsistencies  with  sound  Lutheran  practice, 
great  obscuration  of  the  clearness  of  the  Lutheran  faith,  as 
well  as  an  alarming  condition  of  widespread  spiritual  tor- 
por, can  be  clearly  traced  in  the  succeeding  history  of 
the  mother-synod.  It  is  a  great  exaggeration,  however, 
to  consider  it  at  any  time  a  rationalistic  body.  There  was 
never  any  express  renunciation  of  the  distinctive  doctrines 
of  Lutheranism,  which  always  had  outspoken  confessors 
among  the  more  prominent  members.     The  existence  of 

1  Nicum,  p.  70. 


314  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

the  counter-current  was  deeply  lamented,  but  they  excused 
themselves  from  a  more  decided  protest  by  their  confi- 
dence that  errors  which  they  abhorred  and  condemned 
could  not  live  long,  but  must  inevitably  in  a  short  time 
run  their  course.  It  is  only  when  these  departures  from 
the  faith  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  of  men  in  many  respects 
to  be  venerated  for  other  distinguished  services,  are  cited 
as  a  model  for  future  generations,  that  this  darker  side  of 
the  picture  should  be  closely  examined.  Facts  and  cita- 
tions in  abundance  could  be  introduced,  but  to  what  end? 
The  lesson  has  been  learned,  and  is  universally  acknowl- 
edged. In  the  rural  districts,  among  those  ordinarily  in 
obscurity  at  synodical  sessions,  the  more  pronounced  forms 
of  rationalism  were  to  an  extent  current,  and  often  were 
repelled  by  humble  people  who  had  been  trained  under 
more  wholesome  influences.  In  1813  we  find  in  the  min- 
utes of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  a  complaint  from 
three  congregations  in  Ohio,  that  their  pastor  was  no 
longer  faithful  '*  to  the  old  Lutheran  doctrine,"  and  Dr. 
Lochman  was  appointed  to  admonish  him  **  to  abide  by 
the  old  pure  doctrine  and  to  make  no  innovations."  Two 
years  before,  the  same  synod  had  warned  the  traveling 
missionary,  Paul  Henkel,  to  beware  of  camp-meetings. 
The  representative  men  of  the  synod,  such  as  Helmuth, 
H.  E.  and  H.  A.  Muhlenberg,  Lochman,  J.  G.  Schmucker, 
were  neither  rationalistic  nor  friends  of  ''new  measures." 
Dr.  Endress,  of  Lancaster,  showed  some  sympathy  with 
the  type  of  theology  which  we  will  find  prevailing  in  the 
New  York  Ministerium.  Dr.  Helmuth's  relations  with 
the  Moravians  were  very  intimate,  and  the  proceedings 
of  their  conferences  were  eagerly  read  and  preserved  by 
him.  With  this,  he  undoubtedly  became  infected  with 
the  Moravian  aversion  to  expHcit  theological  definitions, 
and  communicated  this  tendency   to   his   pupils.     There 


QUITMAN'S  CATECHISM.  315 

was  no  formal  rejection  or  antagonism  to  the  old  faith, 
except  by  a  few  relatively  obscure  men,  whose  influence 
was  not  regarded  sufficient  to  occasion  much  trouble.  The 
old  synod  was  very  tolerant ;  this  was  her  chief  error. 

In  the  New  York  Ministerium,  the  process,  which  at 
first  was  less  rapid,  finally  burst  through  all  barriers  with 
the  death  of  Dr.  Kunze,  in  1807.  This  was  due  in  large 
measure  to  the  overpowering  influence  of  Frederick  Henry 
Quitman,  D.D.,  pastor  at  Rhinebeck,  a  graduate  of  Halle, 
a  former  pastor  in  Curagoa,  and  in  18 14  a  doctor  of  div- 
inity of  Harvard,  He  was  a  man  of  commanding  pres- 
ence, who  stood  in  the  midst  of  his  brethren  like  Saul 
among  the  hosts  of  Israel,  and  by  his  intellectual  force 
silenced  opposition.  A  member  of  the  Ministerium  of 
New  York  from  1796  until  his  death,  in  1832,  he  was  for 
twenty-one  years  its  president. 

The  catechism  prepared  by  Dr.  Quitman,  and  published, 
"with  consent  and  approbation  of  the  synod,"  in  1814,  is 
a  monument  of  the  dominant  tendency  of  the  time.  In 
elegant  English,  entirely  above  the  comprehension  of 
children,  and  in  an  order  and  with  a  vigor  that  showed  a 
trained  logician,  an  entirely  new  exposition  of  the  faith 
of  the  church  was  proposed  as  a  substitute  for  Luther's 
Catechism. 

It  starts  out  with  the  assumption  that  '*  the  grounds  of 
rational  belief  are  natural  perception,  the  authority  of 
competent  witnesses,  and  unquestionable  arguments  of 
reason."  It  denies  that  man  has  been  deprived  of  free 
moral  agency.  The  divine  image  has  only  been  stained 
by  sin.  The  catechumen  is  taught  "  to  respect  humanity  " 
and  ''never  to  disgrace  our  dignity."  That  Jesus  Christ 
is  true  God  is  not  taught.  A  great  deal  is  said  of  his 
'*  divine  authority  "  and  ''  divine  mission  "  and  **  divine 
commission."     That  he  is  called  ''  the  Son  of  God  "  is  ex- 


3l6  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

plained  *'  as  well  on  account  of  his  exalted  dignity,  and 
preeminence  above  all  created  beings,  as  on  account  of  the 
great  love  which  his  heavenly  Father  manifested  for  him." 
So  ''he  is  called  our  Lord,"  "because  God  has  committed 
to  him  the  government  of  the  church."  He  suffered  and 
died,  in  order  to  ''  seal  the  doctrine  which  he  had  preached 
with  his  blood."  ''  The  forgiveness  of  sins  "  in  the  Apos- 
tles' Creed  is  interpreted  as  referring  to  "  the  sentiments 
of  charity  "  we  should  exercise  "  for  every  one  who  has 
erred  from  the  way  of  truth."  Baptism  has  no  more 
meaning  than  to  signify  that  ''  as  water  cleanses  our 
bodies,"  *'  so  we  find  in  communion  with  Christ  whatever 
is  necessary  to  purify  our  souls."  The  renunciation  of 
the  devil  in  baptism  is  a  reminiscence  of  the  days  of  early 
Christianity,  when  converts  from  heathenism  thus  obliged 
themselves  ''  to  forsake  all  idolatry  and  the  sinful  pageantry 
connected  with  it."  Instead  of  the  blessing  which  the 
Lord  bestows  in  his  Holy  Supper,  upon  which  Luther's 
Catechism  dwells,  this  New  York  catechism  has  the  fol- 
lowing : 

What  profit  does  the  worthy  communicant  derive  from  this  sacrament? 

He  thereby  strengthens  his  attachment  to  his  Lord  and  Saviour,  and  his 
affection  to  his  fellow-men  ;  excites  himself  to  new  resolutions  of  holiness  ; 
increases  his  inclination  and  sense  of  his  duty  to  promote  the  cause  of  Christ; 
sets  a  good  example  to  those  around;  and  renews  his  impressions  of  the 
saving  and  comfortable  doctrine  of  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ. 

The  identity  of  the  resurrection  body  with  that  which 
we  have  in  this  life  is  denied,  and  i  Corinthians  xv.  50, 
''Flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit,"  etc.,  is  cited  as  the 
proof-text. 

In  a  sketch  of  the  history  of  religion,  in  the  appendix, 
Luther's  silence  in  his  later  years  in  regard  to  "  improve- 
ments by  his  friends"  is  urged  as  showing  that  "he  ap- 
proved  of   these   emendations."      In   his   list   of  eminent 


F.    C.    SCHAEFFER.  317 

theologians  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  no  reference  is  made 
to  the  dogmaticians  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cent- 
uries, but,  with  a  few  whose  inchision  in  such  hst  would 
be  generally  approved,  the  names  of  Semler,  Ernesti, 
Jerusalem,  Michaelis,  Doderlein,  Koppe,  are  commended 
as  advocates  of  the  freedom  of  thought  introduced  by  the 
Reformation.  There  can  be  no  mistaking  the  type  of 
theology  which  such  a  catechism  represented.  It  was  a 
skillful  effort  to  Americanize  German  rationaHsm,  and  sub- 
stitute it  for  the  type  of  theology  according  to  which  the 
foundations  of  the  church  in  America  had  been  laid.  But, 
as  could  be  anticipated,  it  failed  to  obtain  any  extensive 
circulation.  The  stepson  of  its  author,  Dr.  P.  F.  Mayer, 
provided,  silently  and  without  synodical  authority,  an  edi- 
tion in  English  of  Luther's  Catechism,  with  proof-texts 
— a  revision  of  a  previously  issued  book ;  and  the  synod, 
with  equal  silence,  seems  to  have  used  it,  since  the  ''  au- 
thorized "  catechism  was  unsold  and  brought  loss  to  its 
publisher.^ 

The  synod  was  more  orthodox  than  its  president. 
Gradually  a  band  of  men  of  entirely  different  spirit  grew 
within  it,  and  the  lines  were  clearly  drawn  between  the 
two  tendencies.  Dr.  Frederick  Christian  Schaeffer  (born 
1792,  died  1 831),  pastor  in  New  York,  son  of  the  pastor  at 
Philadelphia,  Dr.  F.  D.  Schaeffer,  and  the  eldest  of  four 
brothers  whose  learning  and  influence  continued  to  con- 
tribute greatly  to  the  development  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
in  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  was  the  most  pronounced 
in  his  opposition  to  the  current  which  was  sweeping  the 
New  York  Ministerium  no  one  could  tell  whither.  But  he 
had  to  struggle  as  a  very  young  man  against  those  who  in 
age  were  his  fathers.  Nor  was  the  Ministerium  of  Penn- 
sylvania satisfied.     Whatever  may  have  been  the  confusion 

1  Dr.  B.  M.  Schmucker,  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  voh  v.,  p.  174. 


3l8  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

there,  a  formal  protest  was  made  when  the  delegate  of 
the  latter  body,  in  1819,  sought  to  rebuke  what  was  re- 
garded the  deeply  rooted  Socinianism  by  preaching  to  the 
New  York  Ministerium  on  the  text,  i  John  i.  7. 

Long  before  this,  viz.,  in  the  year  of  Muhlenberg's 
death,  a  catechism  had  been  published  for  the  congrega- 
tions in  North  Carolina  by  Dr.  Velthusen,  of  Helmstadt, 
which  is  pervaded  by  the  same  tendency  as  that  of  Dr. 
Quitman. 1 

Such  teaching  soon  showed  its  entire  inability  to  live  in 
America.  It  never  gained  a  hold  among  the  people ;  it 
never  very  extensively  affected  the  ministry.  Its  worst 
evil  was  the  loss  of  time  and  energy,  and  the  deadness 
and  indifference  which  it  fostered.  It  bore  within  it  the 
seeds  of  its  own  ruin.  A  bold  and  defiant  criticism  must 
itself  fall  beneath  its  own  weapons.  The  necessities  of 
the  Christian  life  demand  a  positive  faith,  and  turn  from  a 
reHgion  of  doubt  and  uncertainty,  as  patients  soon  desert 
a  physician  who  has  no  remedies  for  diseases. 

The  unionism  which  prevailed  was  partly  a  symptom 
of  the  coming  danger,  and  partly  a  reaction  from  it.  In 
New  York  the  tendency  at  first  was  toward  the  Episco- 
pal Church.  In  1797,  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Kunze, 
the  resolution  was  passed : 

That  on  account  of  an  intimate  relation  subsisting  between  the  English 
Episcopalian  and  Lutheran  churches,  the  identity  of  their  doctrine  and  the 
near  approach  of  their  church  discipline,  this  consistory  will  never  acknowl- 
edge a  newly  erected  Lutheran  church  in  places  where  the  members  may 
partake  of  the  services  of  the  said  English  Episcopal  Church. 2 

1  "  It  is  superficial,  vague,  unevangelical,  exalting  human  reason,  and  de- 
grading the  work  of  Christ.  .  .  .  We  are  grateful  to  a  loving  Lord  that  our 
churches  generally  derived  their  men  and  books  from  Halle  rather  than  from 
Helmstadt." — Dr.  B„  M.  Schmucker,  in  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol. 
v.,  p.  170. 

2  Dr.  Nicum  explains  reasons  for  this  action  in  his  **  History,"  p.  76  sq. 


CONFUSION  IN   THE   SOUTH.  319 

The  records  of  the  convention  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
of  the  same  year  show  that  negotiations  were  actually  in 
progress  for  a  union. 

In  1797  the  Rev.  Thomas  Ellison,  Rector  of  St.  Peter's,  Albany,  com- 
municated to  the  convention  the  interesting  intelligence  that  some  Lutheran 
clergymen  had,  in  the  name  and  on  behalf  of  the  consistory  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  the  State  of  New  York,  intimated  to  him  a  desire  to  have  it  pro- 
posed to  this  convention  that  their  church  might  be  united  with  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church  in  this  State,  and  that  their  ministers  might  receive 
Episcopal  ordination. 

It  was  referred  to  a  committee  with  Bishop  Moore  as 
chairman,  but  fell  through.  Bishop  Perry  ^  gives  certain 
reasons,  but,  on  the  Lutheran  side,  others  could  without 
doubt  be  found. 

Seven  years  later  the  resolution  was  unanimously  re- 
pealed. 

The  first  separate  EngHsh  Lutheran  congregation  or- 
ganized in  this  country  was  Zion's,  New  York,  formed  out 
of  Dr.  Kunze's  German  Church  in  1796.  Li  1805  the 
pastor,  Rev.  George  Strebeck,  carried  a  large  number  of 
its  members,  and  members  of  Christ's  Church,  with  him 
into  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  founded  St.  Stephen's 
Church.  Five  years  later,  Rev.  Ralph  Williston,  who  had 
been  a  Methodist  and  became  pastor  of  Zion's  in  1805, 
took  the  entire  congregation,  or  as  much  as  had  been  left 
after  Mr.  Strebeck's  defection,  into  the  Episcopal  Church. 

In  1 794  the  Lutheran  ministers  in  North  Carolina,  be- 
fore the  formation  of  any  synod,  ordained  Robert  Johnson 
Miller,  a  Scotchman,  and  pledged  him  to  ''  ye  Rules,  or- 
dinances, and  customs  of  ye  Christian  Society,  called  ye 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  America."^  Under  this 
pledge,  Mr.  Miller  was  pastor  of  Lutheran  congregations 
for  twenty-seven   years.      In    18 10   Gottlieb   Schober,  a 

1  Perry,  vol.  ii.,  p.  150.  2  Bernheim,  p.  339. 


320  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

lawyer  and  former  member  of  the  North  Carolina  legis- 
lature, fifty-four  years  old,  and  to  the  end  of  his  life 
professing  to  be  also  a  Moravian,  was  ordained  by  the 
North  CaroHna  Synod,  which  had  been  formed  in  1803,  by 
Arnd,  Miller,  Storch,  and  Paul  Henkel.  After  the  Epis- 
copal Church  was  estabhshed  in  North  Carolina,  and  Mr. 
Miller  had  entered  it,  the  Lutheran  Synod  and  the  con- 
vention of  that  church  entered  into  an  arrangement  for 
exchange  of  delegates,  having  the  right  not  only  of  a  seat, 
but  also,  except  when  a  division  was  called  for,  of  a  vote 
in  each  body.i 

The  current  in  South  Carolina  was  in  another  direction. 
There,  in  1 788,  five  Lutheran  and  two  Reformed  pastors 
united  in  a  Corpus  Evmigeliciun  or  ''Uitio  Ecclesiastica  of 
the  German  Protestant  Churches."  The  Lutheran  pas- 
tors were  pledged  by  the  constitution  to  the  symbolical 
books.  The  organization  disclaims  the  idea  of  any  re- 
nunciation of  his  denominational  confession  by  any  of  the 
members.  Two  lay  delegates  were  provided  for  each  of 
the  fifteen  congregations — of  which  nine  were  Lutheran — 
represented.  The  Charleston  pastors  were  never  mem- 
bers. It  was  short-lived,  no  meetings  having  been  held 
after  1794.'*^ 

In  Pennsylvania  the  struggle  for  the  German  language 
drew  the  Lutherans  and  the  Reformed  more  closely  to- 
gether. Muhlenberg  and  Schlatter  had  maintained  their 
intimacy,  without  thinking  of  ignoring  or  confounding  the 
important  denominational  principles  which  separated  them. 
But  as  the  importance  of  sound  doctrinal  teaching  fell 
into  the  background,  the  language  became  the  watchword 
which  awakened  greater  zeal  than  that  of  faith.  As  a 
rule,  the  churches  in  the  rural  districts  were  union  churches. 
These  were  sometimes  occupied  by  union  congregations, 

1  Bernheim,  p.  460  sq. 

2  "  Constitution  and  Proceedings  "  in  Bernheim,  pp.  291-303. 


FRANKLIN  COLLEGE.  32  I 

havinof  one  church  council,  in  which  the  two  confessions 
were  indiscriminately  mixed,  but  having,  at  the  same  time, 
two  pastors,  one  for  the  Lutheran  and  the  other  for  the 
Reformed  members.^  Intermarriage,  without  any  change 
of  faith  on  the  part  of  either  husband  or  wife,  threw  the 
family  religious  life  into  confusion,  as  some  of  the  chil- 
dren would  follow  the  father,  and  others  the  mother. 
Among  the  people  the  saying  was  current  that  the  sole 
distinction  between  the  churches  was  that  the  Lutherans 
began  the  Lord's  Prayer  with  Vater  unscr,  and  the  Re- 
formed with  Unser  Vater.  The  Reformed  Synod  indorsed 
Dr.  Helmuth's  "  Evangelisches  Magazin  "  for  circulation 
in  its  congregations. 

There  had  been  cooperation  between  the  Lutherans  and 
Reformed  in  Franklin  College,  at  Lancaster,  Pa.  This  in- 
stitution had  been  the  result  of  the  efforts  made  by  Ben- 
jamin Franklin  to  anglicize  and  educate  the  Pennsylvania 
Germans,  from  whom,  it  had  been  feared,  with  their  lack 
of  schools,  a  new  heathenism  was  impending.  With 
Franklin  that  heathenism  meant  nothing  more  serious  than 
illiteracy.  The  Act  of  Incorporation  of  1787-  prescribes 
that  the  board  of  trustees  shall  consist  of  fourteen  Lu- 
therans, fourteen  Reformed,  and  the  rest  from  other  Chris- 
tian communions  without  distinction.  Among  the  first 
trustees  were  Drs.  Helmuth  and  H.  E.  Muhlenberg,  Revs. 
J.  N.  Kurtz,  C.  E.  Schultze,  Jacob  van  Buskirk,  John 
Herbst,  and  F.  V.  Melsheimer,  and  General  Peter  Muhl- 
enberg. The  Catholic  priest  at  Lancaster  was  included. 
The  president  was  to  be  chosen  alternately  from  the  Lu- 
theran and  Reformed  churches.  The  purpose  of  the  insti- 
tution was  stated  as  "  to  promote  accurate  knowledge  of 
the  German  and  English  languages — also  of  the  learned 

1  Such  congregations  are  still  in  existence. 

'^  A  translation  into  German  in  "Acten  eur  Neuesten  Kirchengeschiclite," 
vol.  ii.  (1791),  p.  366  sq. 


322  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

languages — of  mathematics,  moral  and  natural  philosophy, 
divinity,  and  all  such  other  branches  of  literature  as  will 
tend  to  make  men  good  and  useful  citizens." 

The  first  president  was  Dr.  Henry  Ernst  Muhlenberg. 
His  inaugural,  June  6,  1787,  most  forcibly  shows  the  value 
of  a  Christian  education.  He  chose  for  it  a  text,  Ephe- 
sians  vi.  4,  "  Bring  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition 
of  the  Lord,"  and  claimed  that  the  religious  instruction 
was  to  be  the  main  object  that  should  be  kept  in  view  in 
all  the  instruction.^ 

Another  member  of  the  ministerium  was  in  the  faculty, 
viz.,  the  Rev.  F.  V.  Melsheimer,  sometimes  called  the  Father 
of  American  Entomology,  who  had  the  comprehensive  de- 
partment of  "  Greek,  Latin,  and  German."  It  was  well  at- 
tended, there  having  been  one  hundred  and  twelve  stu- 
dents in  the  English  department  alone  during  the  first  year. 
But  the  financial  management  was  such  that  it  soon  de- 
generated into  what  was  little  more  than  a  local  academy, 
until,  in  1850,  the  funds  accruing  from  the  sales  of  lands 
given  by  the  State  in  Venango,  Bradford,  and  Lycoming 
counties — part  of  them  subsequent  oil-fields — were  divided 
between  the  Lutherans^  and  the  Reformed. 

The  original  idea  of  providing  for  theological  instruction 
in  Franklin  College  was  not  speedily  abandoned.  In  1818 
the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  appointed  a  committee, 
which,  in  connection  with  a  similar  committee  of  the  Re- 
formed Church,  should  prepare  a  plan  for  a  joint  educa- 
tional institution  in  connection  with  Franklin  College. 
The  next  year  the  institution  in  view  is  referred  to  as  a 

1  Eine  Rede,  gehalten  den  6ten  Juny,  1787,  bey  der  Einweihung  von  der 
Deutschen  bohen  Scbule  oder  FrankHn  Collegium  in  Lancaster,  von  Gottbilf 
Hen.  Mublenberg,  Principal  des  Collegium,  etc.  (Lancaster,  1788),  p.  15.  • 

2  Tbe  Lutberan  sbare  went  to  found  tbc  F'ranklin  professorship  in  Penn- 
sylvania College,  Gettysburg,  filled  from  1850  to  1883  by  nominees  of  the 
Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania. 


A   LUTHERAN-REFORMED   SEMINARY.  323 

joint  theological  seminary.  The  report  of  the  committee, 
of  which  Dr.  J.  G.  Schmucker  was  chairman,  gives  a  thor- 
oughly elaborated  plan.  The  name  was  to  be  *'  The 
Theological  Seminary  for  the  Education  of  Pious  Young 
Men  to  the  EvangeHcal  Ministry."  There  were  to  be  two 
professors,  one  elected  by  the  synod  of  each  denomination, 
and  eighteen  trustees,  also  equally  divided.  Among  their 
duties,  they  were  to  ''  watch  against  the  gradual  introduc- 
tion of  error,  and  lead  the  students  to  a  knowledge  of 
unadulterated  truth  "  ;-  but  what  this  error  and  this  truth 
are  is  not  specified.  A  ''  Magazine  "  was  to  be  published 
by  the  faculty,  to  which  the  pastors  of  both  synods  were 
expected  to  subscribe,  and  for  which  they  were  to  secure 
subscriptions  within  their  congregations.  The  professors 
were  to  be  members  of  the  board,  with  both  a  seat  and 
vote,  except  in  matters  of  personal  interest.  Both  synods 
were  to  make  equal  annual  contributions  toward  the  sem- 
inary. 

This  was  a  scheme  that  could  not  be  realized.  It  was 
only  one  of  the  manifestations  of  a  desire  for  union  be- 
tween these  two  large  German  bodies  in  Pennsylvania, 
which  frequently  came  to  view  during  this  and  the  early 
part  of  the  succeeding  period.  An  historian  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  has  well  said:"^ 

It  must  be  confessed  that  many  ministers  of  the  Reformed  and  Lutheran 
churches  favored  the  organic  union  of  these  two  bodies,  not  because  tliey 
had  reached  a  proper  doctrinal  basis  for  such  union,  but  because  they  knew 
little  and  cared  less  about  the  questions  at  issue  between  them. 

A  very  interesting  indication  of  the  current  tendency- 
was  the  publication,  in  181 7,  of  the  '' Gemeinschaftliches 
Gesangbuch  "  as  a  substitute  for  the  hymn-book  prepared 

1  MS.  "Archives  of  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania"  for  1820. 

2  "  Historic  Manual  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  the  United  States,"  by 
Joseph  Henry  Dubbs,  D.D.  (Lancaster,  Pa.,  1885),  p.  265. 


324  ^-^^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

in  1787  by  Muhlenberg,  Kunze,  and  Helmuth.  It  was 
intended  for  the  use  of  both  the  Lutheran  and  the  Re- 
formed, was  recommended  by  the  synods  of  both  churches 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  bore  the  indorsement  of  Dr.  Quitman 
that  "  it  is  far  better  adapted  to  our  present  times  than 
those  now  used  at  pubHc  service  in  the  German  Protestant 
churches  of  our  country."  The  relative  merits  of  these 
books  may  be  estimated  according  to  these  professions 
when  the  words  of  the  eminent  Presbyterian  professor, 
Dr.  J.  W.  Alexander,  of  Princeton,  in  criticism  of  German 
hymns,  are  remembered : 

**  In  looking  through  Knapp,  I  observe,  with  pain,  that 
the  nearer  we  come  to  our  own  day,  the  farther  we  are 
from  the  cross  ;  more  of  the  Muse,  less  of  the  Redeemer.  "1 

Nevertheless  these  movements — strange  as  the  state- 
ment may  seem — were  partially  reactionary  against  the 
widespread  rationalistic  influences  that  were  entering. 
When  the  most  vital  and  most  central  doctrines  were 
assailed,  it  was  not  unnatural  for  Christian  ministers  of 
diverging  confessions  to  feel  drawn  toward  each  other  in 
their  defense.  There  would  be  more  sympathy  between 
a  conservative  Lutheran  and  a  conservative  Reformed 
theologian  than  between  him  and  the  professed  Lutheran 
theology  represented  by  the  catechism  bearing  in  18 14  the 
indorsement  of  the  New  York  Ministerium.  Where  Lu- 
therans were  all  in  confusion  because  of  the  defection  of 
prominent  pastors  and  professors  in  Germany  and  Amer- 
ica, it  was  not  strange  for  other  Lutherans  to  find  sympa- 
.thy  in  the  association  of  those  of  a  more  positive  faith 
within  the  Reformed  Church. 

So  much  must  be  said,  in  order  to  interpret  correctly 
the  position  of  the  more  earnest  men  of  this  period.  But 
there  is  a  darker  picture — perhaps  the  darkest  in  the  his- 

1  Schaff's  "  Kirchenfreund,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  91. 


THE   RURAL   PARISHES.  325 

tory  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America — that  dare  not 
be  passed  over  by  one  who  would  be  a  faithful  historian. 
It  is  that  of  not  a  few  pastors,  orthodox  in  the  general 
sense  of  the  term,  not  from  deep  personal  conviction,  but 
from  intellectual  indolence  and  motives  of  expediency. 
Settled  in  the  midst  of  large  parishes  of  from  six  to  twelve 
congregations,  ministering  to  an  uneducated  rural  popula- 
tion, they  preached  the  Word  of  God,  but  wxre  occupied 
with  the  secular  demands  of  their  farms  as  much  as  with 
the  spiritual  interests  of  their  people.  That  close  personal 
dealing  with  individual  souls  that  characterized  the  minis- 
try of  Muhlenberg  and  Brunnholtz  was  an  impossibility. 
The  pastor  scarcely  knew,  even  by  name,  the  thousands  of 
members  in  his  parish,  as  he  passed  on  Sunday,  with  all 
haste,  from  one  church  to  another.  A  few  volum.es  of 
sermons,  from  which  to  gather  material  ready  for  prompt 
use  in  the  pulpit,  and  the  local  newspaper  were  probably 
the  sole  reading  with  which  he  supplemented  the  theolog- 
ical course  he  had  received  from  some  pastor  thoroughly 
preoccupied  with  other  duties.  Not  indifferent  to  attend- 
ance upon  synodical  sessions,  where,  for  a  time,  the  pro- 
ceeds of  certain  European  legacies  were  divided  into  small 
shares  among  those  present,  the  connection  of  such  pastors 
with  the  body  was  otherwise  so  loose  that  they  were 
ready  on  the  least  provocation  to  declare  themselves  inde- 
pendent, and  insisted  that  it  was  the  office  of  the  synod 
only  to  give  advice,  which,  at  their  pleasure,  they  were 
free  to  accept  or  reject.  There  were  no  educational  or 
missionary  enterprises  that  could  enlist  their  interest. 
Was  it  a  wonder  that,  under  a  ministry  thus  secularized, 
the  hearing  of  the  Word  and  the  receiving  of  the  sacra- 
ments degenerated  into  purely  mechanical  services,  that 
church  discipline  almost  completely  vanished,  and  that, 
amidst  the  great  progress  which  the  last  three  quarters  of 


326  •  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xix. 

a  century  has  witnessed  within  these  congregations,  the 
"rehcs  of  this  ecclesiastical  semi-barbarism  have  not  alto- 
gether passed  away?  What  the  feudal  lord  was  in  the 
middle  ages,  the  Pennsylvanian  German  pastor  among 
both  Lutheran  and  Reformed  closely  resembled  J 

But  such  degeneracy  was  not  without  its  protest  from 
the  synod  itself.  A  printed  ''Appeal,"  sent  out  in  its  name 
in  1810,  states  the  case  most  forcibly: 

When  the  writer  sat  down  to  comply  with  the  duty  intrusted  him  by  the 
synod,  the  earlier  years  of  his  pilgrimage  in  this  western  land  came  into  lively 
remembrance.  The  simplicity  of  life,  the  warm  love  to  religion  and  the  wor- 
ship of  God,  the  kind  and  cordial  demeanor  of  our  dear  country  people  of 
those  days,  passed  in  review.  With  the  warmest  emotion  he  thought  of  the 
many  nights  he  had  spent  in  their  dwellings,  of  the  touching  prayers  offered 
by  the  fathers  of  families  about  the  hour  of  midnight  to  the  throne  of  Jesus, 
of  the  conversations,  prolonged  into  the  stillness  of  the  night,  with  the  fathers 
and  mothers,  generally  concerning  the  preaching  of  the  Word  heard  the  pre- 
ceding day.      Religion  was  actually  with  many  the  chief  thing. 

It  was  a  general  custom,  when  a  pastor  spent  the  night  with  country  peo- 
ple, for  him  to  devote  the  evening  to  godly  conversation  with  the  members  of 
the  family,  to  which  the  nearest  neighbors  were  ordinarily  invited ;  they 
sang,  they  prayed,  and  then,  quickened  anew  to  spiritual  life,  retired  to  rest. 

It  belongs,  of  course,  chiefly  to  the  ministers  to  care  for  your  congrega- 
tions ;  if  they  do  not  themselves  pray,  if  they  have  no  true  feeling  for  relig- 
ion, how  is  it  possible  for  them  to  quicken  the  same  in  your  hearts?  Alas-! 
it  is  often  the  case  that  the  pastor  thinks  that  he  has  discharged  fully  his 
duty  when  he  regularly  gives  his  services  in  preaching,  etc.  ;  this  is  indeed 
praiseworthy,  but  it  is  not  enough.  A  minister  should  always  manifest  the 
warm  heart  of  a  parent  for  the  members  of  his  congregation.  He  should 
not  always  speak  in  the  formal  tone  of  the  preacher,  but  in  that  of  the  father, 
who  wants  to  deliver  his  child  from  a  nearly  impending  danger,  with  the 
warmth  and  earnestness  of  one  who  runs  to  the  rescue  and  stretches  forth 
his  arms  to  help.  He  should  try  to  learn  to  speak  as  Jesus  did  during  the 
days  of  his  walk  upon  earth.  2 

1  This  has  been  treated  at  large  in  "  Der  Deutsche  Kirchenfreund " 
(Schaff),  vol.  ii.  (1849),  pp.  129-140. 

2  "Ansprache  an  die  gesammten  Glieder  der  Dcutsch  Ev. -Lutlierischen 
Gemeinen  in  Pennsylvanien  und  den  benachbarten  Staaten  "  (Philadelphia, 
181 1 ),  p.  20. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

SOME    DIFFICULT    PROBLEMS. 

As  before  intimated,  the  language  question  occupied 
much  attention  and  excited  intense  feeling  during  this 
period.  In  New  York  the  process  of  anglicizing  was 
much  more  rapid,  and  there  was  no  permanent  recession 
from  the  use  of  English  introduced  by  Muhlenberg  in  the 
services  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York  City.  Dr.  Kunze 
preached  in  English,  and  published  an  EngHsh  hymn-book 
and  an  English  edition  of  Luther's  Catechism.  Afterward 
he  obtained  an  English-speaking  assistant  in  Rev.  George 
Strebeck.  He  opposed  the  formation  of  a  separate  Eng- 
lish congregation,  holding  that  English  services  should  be 
held  regularly  in  the  German  church.  The  separation  of 
the  English  congregation,  in  his  opinion,  did  not  obviate 
the  necessity  for  the  continuance  of  English  services  in 
the  German  church.  While  there  was  possibly  an  inter- 
ruption during  the  first  pastorate  of  the  elder  Dr.  Geissen- 
hainer,  in  Dr.  F.  C.  Schaeffer  an  able  preacher  in  both 
languages  was  provided.  Throughout  the  State  the  pro- 
cess was  so  rapid  that,  in  1807,  the  English  became  the 
official  language  of  the  ministerium,  and  so  continued  until 
1866. 

The  antipathy  to  English,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
anxiety  to  have  regular  English  services,  on  the  other, 
occasioned  a  violent  struggle  in  the  congregation  in  Phila- 
delphia,  of  which  Drs.    Helmuth   and   Schmidt  v.-ere  the 

327 


32  8  THE  LUTHERANS,  [Chap.  xx. 

pastors,  which  culminated  in  1806  in  the  founding  of  St. 
John's  EngHsh  Church.  The  advocates  of  EngUsh,  under 
the  leadership  of  General  Peter  Muhlenberg,  who  had  been 
president  of  the  corporation,  had  not  intended  to  form  a 
new  congregation,  but  insisted  that  a  third  pastor  should 
be  called  who  would  officiate  in  English.  The  feeling 
was  intensified  by  the  impression,  upon  the  part  of  the 
opponents  of  the  proposition,  that  Rev.  H.  A.  Muhlenberg, 
afterward  minister  to  Austria,  then  completing  his  studies 
under  Dr.  Kunze,  was  to  be  the  English  pastor.  At  the 
election,  January  6,  1806,  1400  votes  were  polled,  the 
majority  against  the  proposition  being  1 30.  Prior  to  this, 
the  controversy  had  been  carried  into  the  ministerium, 
which  at  its  meeting,  in  Germantown  in  1805,  passed  the 
resolution  that  it  **  must  remain  a  German-speaking  min- 
isterium," and  forbidding  the  introduction  of  any  measure 
"  which  would  necessitate  the  use  of  any  other  language 
than  the  German  in  synodical  sessions."  English-speak- 
ing Lutherans  not  understanding  German  were  encouraged 
to  form  themselves  into  congregations,  with  the  promise 
that  they  would  be  recognized  and  admitted  to  synodical 
privileges,  provided  they  would  submit  to  the  constitu- 
tion. In  a  long  private  letter  to  Dr.  Helmuth,  Dr.  H. 
E.  Muhlenberg,  in  commenting  on  this  action,  urges  the 
great  importance  of  having  pastors  in  all  the  congregations 
able  to  perform  official  acts  in  both  languages,  and  states 
that  while  he  has  found  it  necessary  at  Lancaster  to  sepa- 
rate the  catechumens  according  to  the  language  that  each 
understands,  he  has  found  it  profitable  to  instruct  the 
German  catechumens  in  the  P^nglish  translation  of  their 
catechism,  and.  the  English  catechumens  in  the  German 
original.  The  same  year  his  congregation  at  Lancaster 
declined  to  contribute  to  the  synodical  treasury  until  young 
men  should  be  educated  so  as  to  be  able  to  preach  in  Eng- 


A    CHURCH   TRIAL.  329 

lish.     General  Peter  Muhlenberg's  appeal  during  this  con- 
troversy has  been  previously  referred  to.^ 

Nine  years  later  the  controversy  broke  out  afresh  in  the 
old  church  in  Philadelphia.  Another  swarm  of  young 
people  were  clamoring  for  English  services.  The  conflict 
was  still  more  bitter.  Disorderly  congregational  meetings, 
and  even  blows,  were  the  result.  An  important  legal  suit, 
with  such  prominent  counsel  on  both  sides  as  is  indicated 
by  the  names  of  the  two  Ingersolls,  Binney,  and  Rawle, 
was  instituted  against  Frederick  Eberle  and  others,  **  for 
conspiring  together  to  prevent  the  introduction  of  the 
English  language  into  the  service  of  St.  Michael's  and 
Zion's  churches."  2  They  were  convicted,  but  were  par- 
doned by  Governor  Snyder.  Horace  Binney  said  in  the 
argument : 

Let  me  now  state  to  those  Germans  who  are  listening  to  this  brief  history 
of  their  society,  what  this  history  has  made  prophecy  for  all  future  times, 
that  with  the  revolution  of  every  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  so  long  as  this 
bigoted  exclusion  of  the  English  service  shall  endure,  those  who  at  the  begin- 
ning are  the  enemies  of  the  English  will  at  the  end  of  the  period  become  its 
repentant  friends.  I  ask  those  who  know  the  nature  of  man,  Is  it  possible 
in  the  center  of  an  American  community  to  rear  children  to  the  use  and  per- 
fect understanding  of  the  German  language?  Instances  there  maybe;  the 
diligence  of  some  parents  may  do  much,  and  the  docility  of  some  children 
may  do  more ;  but  I  speak  of  children  in  general.  There  is  no  doubt,  it 
cannot  be.  How,  then,  are  Zion's  and  St.  Michael's  to  be  recruited?  How 
is  the  church  to  be  maintained  in  even  its  original  strength?  Not  by  streams 
from  the  native  fountain,  the  well  of  pure  and  refreshing  waters,  but  by  the 
turbid  current  that  is  rolled  to  this  country  by  the  discontent  and  restlessness 
of  Europe.  The  church  must  depend  upon  emigration.  The  emigrant  must 
supplant  the  native ;  and  when  he  has  been  long  enough  in  this  country  to 
rear  an  American  family,  that  family  must  be  rejected  by  the  church  to  make 
room  for  a  fresh  importation  of  strangers  and  aliens.  What  the  cause  of  the 
prosecutors  is  to-day,  will,  therefore,  twenty  years  hence  be   the   cause  of 

1  A  translation  was  published  in  "  The  Lutheran,"  Philadelphia,  August  5, 
1892. 

2  Its  details  are  preserved  in  a  bound  volume  of  240  pages,  viz.,  "  Trial 
of  Frederick  Eberle  and  others  at  a  nisi  priiis  court,  held  at  Philadelphia, 
July,  18 1 6."     Philadelphia,  181 7. 


330  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xx. 

these  defendants  ;  their  cause  against  some  more  recent  swarm  of  emigrants, 
who,  after  experience  has  operated  upon  parental  afifection  to  turn  these  de- 
fendants from  the  error  of  their  position,  will  conspire  to  rivet  upon  their 
children  the  same  pernicious  rule  which  they  have  conspired  to  rivet  upon 
their  predecessors.! 

The  ultimate  issue  was  the  formation  of  St.  Matthew's 
Church,  in  which  a  number  Vho  had  opposed  the  move- 
ment which  led  St.  John's  out  of  the  mother-church  par- 
ticipated. 

How  intelligent  men  could,  in  their  prejudices,  be  ever 
brought  to  such  extremes  as  those  which  were  advocated 
by  the  opponents  of  the  use  of  the  English  in  the  services  of 
the  church,  is  almost  inconceivable.  The  "  Evangelisches 
Magazin  "  contained  in  1813  a  series  of  articles  under  the 
title  "  Appeal  to  the  Germans  in  America,"  which  cannot 
be  read  without  mingled  amazement  and  amusement. 
They  urge  Reformed  and  Lutherans  to  stand  together 
against  all  attempts  to  introduce  the  English.  The  Eng- 
lish language,  it  is  said,  is  too  poor  to  furnish  an  adequate 
translation  of  the  German  prayers  and  hymns  and  books 
of  devotion.  '^  The  Episcopal  Church  is  not  Lutheran,  as 
many  ignorant  persons  imagine  ;  nor  is  the  Presbyterian 
Church  Reformed.  Both  vary  from  us  in  their  confessions 
of  faith."  English  congregations  could  not,  according  to 
this  writer,  remain  either  Lutheran  or  Reformed,  because 
"  our  religious  writings  are  all  German."  Children  of 
German  parents,  as  they  become  anglicized,  are  said  to 
grow  in  frivolity  and  indifference  to  religion.  If  the  Jews 
have  preserved  the  Hebrew  language  in  their  services  for 
so  many  generations,  why,  it  is  asked,  may  not  the  Ger- 
mans, in  the  same  way,  maintain  their  national  distinctions? 
With  the  utmost  simplicity  the  writer  says : 

Wliat  would  Philadelphia  be  in  forty  years  if  the  Germans  there  were  to 
remain  German,  and  retain  their  language  and  customs?     It  would  not  be 

1  Hiid.,  p.  100. 


TRANSITION  OF  LANGUAGE.  33  I 

forty  years  until  Philadelphia  would  be  a  German  city,  just  as  York  and  Lan- 
caster are  German  counties.  The  English  would  be  driven  to  the  bushes  if 
they  would  build  no  longer  in  the  southern  part  of  the  city.  What  would  be 
the  result  throughout  Pennsylvania  and  northern  Maryland  in  forty  or  fifty 
years?  An  entirely  German  State,  where,  as  formerly  in  Germantown,  the 
beautiful  German  language  would  be  used  in  the  legislative  halls  and  the 
courts  of  justice. 

It  is  Interesting  to  put  such  arguments  side  by  side  with 
Luther's  words  in  his  *' Deutsche  Messe  "  (1526): 

I  have  no  regard  for  those  who  are  so  devoted  to  but  one  language,  and 
despise  all  others  ;  for  I  would  like  to  educate  youth  and  men,  who  might  be 
of  service  to  Christ  and  converse  with  men  also  in  foreign  lands,  so  that  it 
might  not  be  with  us  as  with  tlie  Waldenses  and  Bohemians,  who  have  so 
confined  their  faith  to  their  own  language  that  they  cannot  speak  intelligently 
and  clearly  with  one  until  he  first  learn  their  language.  But  the  Holy  Ghost 
did  not  so  in  the  beginning.  He  did  not  wait  until  the  whole  world  came  to 
Jerusalem  and  learned  Hebrew,  but  He  gave  various  tongues  for  the  ministry 
of  the  Word,  that  the  apostles  might  speak  whithersoever  they  went. 

The  castles  in  the  air  built  by  these  visionaries  dissolved 
alrnost  before  they  could  be  sketched  upon  paper,  but 
were  quickly  followed  by  other  dreams,  that  kept  them  in 
inactivity  until  almost  fatal  injury  was  inflicted  by  the  pro- 
tracted delay.  The  warnings  of  far-seeing  men  like  the 
Muhlenbergs,  true  to  Luther's  instructions,  were  met  by 
stolid  opposition  ;  and  some  of  the  best  friends  of  the 
Lutheran  Church,  despairing  of  .success  under  a  leadership 
of  those  so  utterly  ignorant  of  their  surroundings,  and  so 
different  in  spirit  from  Luther,  gradually  drifted  into  other 
churches.  The  transition  in  language  was  readily  effected, 
and  without  loss,  in  places  where,  as  in  Lancaster  and 
Reading,  under  Muhlenberg's  son  and  grandson,  the  plans 
of  the  patriarch  were  carried  out  and  his  spirit  prevailed. 
But  where  this  was  neglected,  the  loss  was  immense. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  beginnings  of 
the  work  of  the  church  in  educating  candidates  for  the 
ministry.       Muhlenberg,   with    his   many    cares,    we   have 


332  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xx. 

found  making  the  start,  Wrangel  continuing  the  work,  and 
Kunze  following.  The  plan  of  the  last  was  very  compre- 
hensive, as  he  laid  the  foundation  in  what  was  to  have 
been  a  Lutheran  college  in  Philadelphia,  which  was  in 
existence  from  1773  to  1778.  It  was  followed  by  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  German  department  in  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  under  Dr.  Kunze  from  1780  to  1784,  and, 
after  his  removal  to  New  York,  under  Dr.  Helmuth.  One 
of  the  inducements  that  called  Dr.  Kunze  to  New  York 
was  the  prospect  of  a  similar  department  in  Columbia 
College,  which  would  also  comprehend  a  professorship  of 
theology  that  he  was  to  fill.  The  year  in  whiph  Dr.  Kunze 
went  to  New  York,  Revs.  J.  N.  Kurtz,  C.  E.  Schultze, 
and  H.  E.  Muhlenberg  were  elected  trustees  of  Dickinson 
College,  Carlisle,  Pa. 

Dr.  Kunze's  project  was  not  successful ;  he  never  lect- 
ured on  theology  in  Columbia  College.  But  help  for  the 
educational  work  came  from  another  quarter.  Hartwig, 
who  was  a  bachelor,  had  accumulated  large  lands,  by 
judicious  purchases,  with  a  view  to  the  ultimate  service  of 
the  church,  amounting  in  I  761  to  sixteen  thousand  acres, 
but  which  afterward  decreased  to  one  third,  through  the 
management  or  mismanagement  of  the  agent  who  had 
charge  of  them  in  the  old  age  of  their  owner. 

When  Hartwig  died,  July  16,  1796,  this  estate  was  left 
to  found  an  institution  for  pastors  and  missionaries,  the 
venerable  pastor  having  been  especially  interested  in  the 
neighboring  North  American  Indians.  Drs.  Kunze  and 
Helmuth  were  named  as  the  directors  of  the  institution ; 
but  when  the  latter,  on  account  of  the  distance,  declined 
serving,  Dr.  Kunze,  with  the  sole  surviving  executor,  pro- 
vided for  the  opening  of  the  seminary  in  1797.  But  the 
plan  was  a  novel  one.  Dr.  Kunze  was  constituted  theo- 
logical   professor    in    New   York,    Rev.    A.    T.    Braun,  of 


THEOLOGICAL  INSTR UCTION. 


333 


Albany,  was  made  the  classical  Instructor  in  Albany,  and 
Rev.  J.  F.  Ernst  was  sent  to  Otsego  County,  to  occupy 
Hartwig's  lands  and  to  teach  the  youngest  pupils.  Thus 
were  established  an  embryo  theological  seminary  in  New 
York,  a  college  in  Albany,  and  a  preparatory  department 
where  Hartwick  Seminary  now  stands.  Under  this  pro- 
vision. Dr.  Kunze  became  the  theological  preceptor  of 
P.  F.  Mayer  of  Philadelphia,  H.  A.  Muhlenberg  of  Reading, 
F.  W.  Mayer  of  Albany,  J.  P.  Hecht  of  Easton,  and  others. 
Rev.  A.  T.  Braun  succeeded  to  the  place  on  the  death  of 
Dr.  Kunze,  and  held  it  until  1811,  among  his  pupils  hav- 
ing been  Dr.  John  Bachmann,  of  Charleston,  S.  C.  The 
location  was  fixed  finally  in  1812,  when  the  buildings  were 
begun,  where  in  181 5  Dr.  E.  L.  Hazelius  became  principal 
and  professor  In  theology,  with  the  son  of  the  president  of 
the  New  York  Ministerlum,  John  A.  Quitman,  afterward 
a  distinguished  general  in  the  Mexican  War  and  governor 
of  Mississippi,  as  his  assistant.^ 

The  purpose  of  Pastor  Hartwig  to  provide  for  missionary 
work  among  the  Indians  was  not  forgotten.  Professor 
Braun  had  been  a  Roman  Catholic  missionary  among  the 
Indians.  All  his  linguistic  attainments  were  offered  for 
this  service.  Dr.  Kunze  prepared  an  elaborate  plan,  which 
he  sent  to  Halle  and  also  laid  before  President  Washington. 
The  latter  decided  that  Congressional  action  would  be  re- 
quired before  a  beginning  could  be  made.^ 

In  Pennsylvania  Vn^c  have  already  noticed  the  founding 
of  Franklin  College  and  the  proposed  seminary  In  con- 
nection with  it.  Instruction  for  the  ministry  was  entirely 
in  the  hands  of  pastors.  Among  them,  however,  the  joint 
labor  of  Drs.   Helmuth  and  Schmidt  had  a   semi-official 

1  See  article  "  The  Beginning  of  Hartwick  Seminary,"  "  Lutheran  Quar- 
terly," vol.  xxiii.,  p.  206  sq. 

2  Plitt's  "  Geschichte  der  Luth.  Missionen,"  p.  268. 


334  ^^^^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xx. 

character,  and  they  were  considered  as  the  faculty  of  a 
private  theological  seminary.  Dr.  Geissenhainer,  Sr.,  while 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  afterward  in  New  York,  Dr.  H.  E. 
Muhlenberg  and  his  successor  Dr.  Endress,  Rev.  J.  Goer- 
ing,  and  afterward  Dr.  J.  G.  Lochman,  of  Harrisburg,  were 
eminent  as  private  theological  instructors.  The  synod,  on 
several  occasions,  appointed  pastors,  who  were  to  be  re- 
garded its  official  theological  instructors.  In  the  next 
period.  Dr.  D.  F.  Schaeffer,  of  Frederick,  Md.,  and  S.  S. 
Schmucker,  of  New  Market,  Va.,  appear. 

In  1805  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  issued  an 
especial  appeal  to  its  congregations  for  provision  for  the 
increase  of  the  ministry.  This  educational  movement  was 
originated  by  the  development  of  what  we  now  know  as 
home  missions.  The  Lancaster  conference  presented  to 
the  synod  in  1804  a  plan  for  traveling  missionaries,  which 
was  adopted.  It  had  in  view  the  twofold  object  of  provid- 
ing pastors  for  vacant  parishes  and  of  gathering  the  scat- 
tered and  uncared-for  people  into  congregations.  With- 
in a  few  years  much  was  accomplished.  The  names  of 
J.  G.  Butler,  whose  erratic  course  in  his  earlier  years  had 
given  Muhlenberg  great  trouble,^  John  Stauch  (Stough), 
and  Paul  Henkel  are  eminent  among  these  devoted  mission- 
aries of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania.  They  covered 
a  great  extent  of  territory,  westward  far  into  Ohio,  laying 
the  foundations  for  the  numerous  Ohio  synods  of  to-day, 
southwestward  into  the  Holston  region  of  Tennessee,  and 
southv/ard  through  Virginia  into  North  Carolina.  While 
Stauch  at  first  explored  and  supplied  the  valley  of  Virginia, 
especially  Rockbridge,  Botetourt,  and  Montgomery  coun- 
ties, in  1807,  he  became  finally  the  pioneer  of  Lutheran- 
ism  in  Ohio,  and  Henkel's  center  was  ultimately  at  New 
Market,  Va.      Rev.  Simon  was  appointed  for  western  and 

1  See  documents  in  Archives  at  Mount  Airy. 


GEOGRAPHICAL   EXTENSION.  335 

northern  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  in  1808.  Nine  years 
later  we  find  the  name  of  the  pioneer  Lutheran  missionary 
in  India  from  America,  "Father"  Heyer,  on  the  list  of 
these  traveling  missionaries ;  and  within  three  years  his 
field  extended  into  the  States  of  Indiana  and  Kentucky. 
After  an  experience  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  as  a  home 
missionary,  he  was  to  enter  upon  the  work  for  which  he 
will  be  chiefly  remembered,  during  an  interruption  of  which 
he  was  to  resume  his  first  employment  and  found  a  synod 
in  Minnesota.  Those  may  indeed  be  referred  to  as  the 
days  of  small  things,  but  they  were  not  days  of  such  en- 
tire deadness  and  inactivity  as  are  sometimes  imagined. 

The  New  York  Ministerium  had  extended  its  operations 
into  Canada  before  the  close  of  the  preceding  century,  a 
scion  of  the  Schoharie  colony  having  reached  the  Williams- 
burg region  already  in  1771  ;  but  the  pastors  sent  thither 
in  succession  left  the  Lutheran  Church,  and,  in  after-years, 
the  disbanded  and  scattered  people  had  to  be  reorganized. 
As  this  period  closes,  eflforts  are  being  made  toward  oc- 
cupying western  New  York. 

When  the  tercentenary  of  the  Reformation  was  cele- 
brated in  181 7,  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America  had  but 
three  synods,  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  North  Carolina. 
Some  of  the  district  (then  called  "  special  ")  conferences  of 
the  mother-synod  were,  however,  assuming  synodical  pro- 
portions, and  gradually  growing  into  synodical  organiza- 
tions. They  printed  and  distributed  their  own  minutes, 
with  their  own  parochial  reports,  and  their  own  action  con- 
cerning the  affairs  of  the  congregations  in  their  bounds. 

The  pastor  at  Charleston,  S.  C,  belonged  to  the  New 
York  Ministerium.  Pastor  Dreher,  of  South  Carolina,  be- 
longed to  the  North  Carolina  Synod.  In  Georgia  the  in- 
timacy of  Rev.  C.  F.  Bergman  (died  1824)  with  Bishop 
Asbury  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  had  been  fol- 


336  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xx. 

lowed  by  the  abandonment  of  the  Lutheran  interests  at 
Savannah  in  1804,  until  they  were  revived  in  1824.  In 
the  old  Ebenezer  colony,  the  delay  of  English  services 
and  the  deterioration  of  church  discipline  led  to  the  with- 
drawal of  a  large  portion  of  the  people  to  the  Methodist 
and  Baptist  churches  founded  in  the  vicinity.^ 

Some  account  of  the  literary  history  of  the  church  up  to 
this  time,  beyond  what  has  been  incidentally  introduced 
otherwise,  may  be  given  most  appropriately  here.  Allu- 
sion has  already  been  made  to  the  hymn-book  of  1786, 
and  the  deterioration  shown  in  the  ''  Gemeinschaftliches 
Gesangbuch  "  of  181  7. 

Muhlenberg  had  complained  greatly  of  the  variety  of 
hymn-books  in  use  in  the  congregations,  and  generally 
within  the  same  congregation.  Of  these,  the  Marburg 
hymn-book  gained  precedence,  and  an  American  edition 
was  published  by  Christopher  Saur,  Germantown,  in  1762. 
It  contains,  besides  over  six  hundred  hymns,  the  litany,  a 
number  of  prayers,  the  Small  Catechism,  the  gospels  and 
epistles,  with  a  collect  for  each  Sunday  and  festival,  and 
the  history  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. 

The  Marburg  book  was  generally  supplanted  by  the 
hymn-book  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  of  1786. 
This  was  prepared  by  a  committee  composed  of  Drs.  H. 
M.  Muhlenberg,  Kunze,  Helmuth,  and  H.  E.  Muhlenberg, 
with  instructions  to  follow  the  order  of  the  Halle  hymn- 
book,  to  omit  none  of  the  standard  hymns  of  Luther  and 
Paul  Gerhardt,  to  omit  the  gospels  and  epistles  for  the 
apostles'  days  and  other  unusual  festivals,  also  the  history 
of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  the  prayer-book,  and  the 
catechism.  A  new  prayer-book  was  prepared  for  the  ap- 
pendix by  Dr.  Helmuth.  The  chief  part  of  the  editorial 
labor  was  done  by  Dr.    Helmuth,  who  is  responsible  for 

1  Strobe],  p.  244  sq. 


THE  PENNSYLVANIA    HYMN-BOOK.  337 

the  many  changes  made  in  the  hymns.  Muhlenberg's  con- 
tribution to  the  work  was  the  preface,  and  participation 
in  the  selection  of  hymns,  his  infirm  health  rendering  any 
active  share  in  the  more  critical  editorial  labors  impossible. 
In  the  second  edition  (1795)  the  gospels  and  epistles  and 
collects  of  the  Marburg  book  are  introduced,  showing  that 
their  omission  in  the  first  edition  had  not  proved  satisfac- 
tory. With  all  the  defects  resulting  from  the  efforts  of 
Dr.  Helmuth  to  conform  the  older  Lutheran  hymns  to  a 
more  modern  standard,  the  collection  is  one  of  a  most 
conservative  Lutheran  character.  "  From  the  treasures  of 
German  Lutheran  hymnology,"  says  Dr.  Mann,  Muhlen- 
berg **  offered  to  the  congregation  a  collection  showing  his 
preference  for  the  older  hymns  of  the  church,  without 
neglecting  those  of  a  later  period.  .  .  .  There  are  elements 
in  the  book  of  1786  for  which  we  would  not  like  to  make 
Muhlenberg  responsible.  What  he  says  in  his  preface  on 
the  principles  which  ought  ever  to  guide  those  who  are 
intrusted  with  collecting  hymns  for  the  use  of  congrega- 
tions, and  those  who  furnish  the  music  corresponding  to 
the  sacred  character  of  divine  worship,  has  not  lost  its 
value  at  the  present  time."  ^  After  maintaining  its  position 
for  nearly  half  a  century,  it  was  gradually  supplanted  by 
other  books,  until  a  new  effort  was  made  to  secure  uni- 
formity in  the  hymn-book  of  1849,  in  the  preface  of  which 
Dr.  Demme  refers  to  the  causes  that  had  led  to  the  diver- 
sity that  then  existed,  and  shows  how  the  church  had  not 
gained,  but  had  lost,  by  the  disuse  of  the  book  of  i  786. 

Muhlenberg  was  the  advocate  of  the  principle  which  has 
been  expressed  recently  in  the  "  Common  Service,"  having 
written  in  i  783  : 

It  would  be  a  most  desirable  and  advantageous  thing  if  all  the  Evangel- 
ical Lutheran  congregations  in  the  North  American  States  were  united  with 

1  "  Life  of  Muhlenberg,"  pp.  499,  500. 


338  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xx. 

one  another,  if  they  all  used  the  same  order  of  service,  the  same  hymn-book, 
and,  in  good  and  evil  days,  would  show  an  active  sympathy  and  fraternally 
correspond  with  one  another,  l 

While  the  Hturgy  of  1786  is  essentially  the  same  as  that 
of  1748,  there  are  important  changes,  according  to  the 
action  of  the  ministerium  in  1785,  when  Muhlenberg  had 
ceased  to  attend  its  sessions.  These  must  be  regarded 
as  due  chiefly  to  the  president,  Dr.  Helmuth.  Dr.  B.  M. 
Schmucker  affirmed  that  "  they  are  all  of  a  piece.  Every 
one  of  them  is  an  injury  to  the  pure  Lutheran  type  of  the 
old  service."^  Among  them  is  the  substitution  of  an  ex- 
temporaneous prayer  or  one  of  the  morning  prayers  for  the 
collect  for  the  day  from  the  Marburg  hymn-book.  The 
same  rubric  remains,  however,  for  the  constant  use  of  the 
same  general  church  prayer,  or  the  litany.  A  new  gen- 
eral prayer  is  substituted  for  the  one  of  i  748.  This  gen- 
eral prayer  reflects  the  struggle  for  language  in  the  words : 

And  since  it  has  pleased  Thee  chiefly,  by  means  of  the  Germans,  to  trans- 
form this  State  into  a  blooming  garden,  and  the  desert  into  a  pleasant  pastur- 
age, help  us  not  to  deny  our  nation,  but  to  endeavor  that  our  youth  may  be 
so  educated  that  German  schools  and  churches  may  not  only  be  sustained, 
but  may  attain  a  still  more  flourishing  condition. 

The  first  Lutheran  liturgy  published  in  America  was 
still  earlier,  being  that  for  the  Nova  Scotia  churches  in 
1775.  It  is  without  any  order  for  Sunday  services.  The 
general  prayer  to  be  used  at  every  Sunday  service  is  given. 
The  order  for  baptism  is  without  any  reference  to  original 
sin,  and  that  for  the  Lord's  Supper  shows  a  great  weaken- 
ing, although  the  word  "  triie  "  is  used  in  the  formula  of 
distribution.  It  must  be  the  work  of  Rev.  F.  Schultz. 
Its  existence  was  scarcely  known  until  recently,  through 
present  pastors  in  Nova  Scotia. 

The  first  book  used  in  English  services  In  this  country 

1  Mann,  p.  501.  2  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  i.,  p.  22. 


FIRST  ENGLISH  HYMN-BOOK.  339 

was  the  *'  Psalmodia  Germanica,"  a  translation  of  hymns 
from  the  German,  published  in  London  in  1722-25,  second 
edition  1732.  A  reprint  of  the  third  edition  was  pub- 
lished in  New  York  in  1756,  and  used  in  the  English  ser- 
vices of  the  Dutch  (Trinity)  Church,  and  in  the  church  at 
Hackensack,  N.  J.  Thence  it  was  probably  introduced 
into  the  other  churches  along  the  Hudson.  The  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-two  hymns  comprised  many  of  the 
standard  compositions  of  Luther,  Gerhardt,  etc.  Several 
of  these  translations  of  Jacobi  are  in  use  in  the  English 
Church  Book  (Nos.  404,  573).  "The  collection  is  made 
up  of  the  choicest  hymns  of  the  best  authors.  It  is  after  a 
very  pure  Lutheran  type.  If  the  translations  only  had  the 
same  merits  and  excellencies  as  the  originals,  the  '  Psalm- 
odia' would  have  been  invaluable."^  We  give  a  few  of 
the  first  lines  of  hymns,  to  show  what  was  sung  almost  a 
century  and  a  half  ago  in  the  English  language  in  this 
country : 

-  Now  the  Saviour  comes  indeed. 
How  shall  I  meet  my  Saviour? 

0  Lamb  of  God,  our  Saviour. 
Christ  was  to  death  abased. 

Come,  Holy  Ghost;  come,  Lord  our  God. 

Lord,  thine  image  thou  hast  lent  me. 

Commit  thy  ways  and  goings. 

Dearest  Jesus,  we  are  here. 

Never  will  I  part  with  Christ. 

God  is  our  refuge  in  distress. 

Ye  Christians,  pluck  your  courage  up. 

Shan't  I  sing  to  my  Creator? 

'Tis  sure  that  awful  time  will  come. 

Eternity!  tremendous  word. 

Jesus,  Jesus,  naught  but  Jesus. 

Dr.   Kunze  published  in    1 795   ''  A   Hymn  and  Prayer 
Book  for  the  Use  of  such   Lutheran  Churches  as  use  the 

1  Dr.  B.  M.  Schmucker,  in  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  vi.,  p.  232. 


340  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xx. 

English  Language."  It  may  be  called  the  first  model  of 
the  present  English  Church  Book.  It  contains  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  hymns.  Of  these  a  large  number  are  taken 
from  the  "  Psalmodia  Germanica,"  others  from  the  Mora- 
vian book  of  1789,  with  a  liberal  proportion  of  selections  of 
English  hymns,  chiefly  from  Watts.  Besides  the  hymns, 
there  is  a  translation  of  the  liturgy  of  1786,  the  gospels 
and  epistles,  the  Small  Catechism,  ''  Fundamental  Ques- 
tions," Starke's  **  Order  of  Salvation  "  as  translated  by  Dr. 
Wrangel,  "A  Table  of  Christian  Duties,"  ''A  Short  Ac- 
count of  the  Christian  Religion,"  *'A  Short  Account  of  the 
Lutheran  Church,"  the  seven  penitential  Psalms,  and  prayers 
for  Sunday  mornings  and  evenings,  and  week-day  morn- 
ings and  evenings.  Excellent  in  conception  and  in  its 
selections,  the  book  lacks  much  in  purity  and  correctness 
of  English  style.  In  the  appendix  to  the  hymns.  Dr. 
Kunze,  Rev.  George  Strebeck,  and  Rev.  J.  F.  Ernst  con- 
tribute translations  of  their  own.  The  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion was  translated  for  the  book  by  Mr.  Strebeck,  but  as 
the  size  of  the  volume  would  not  admit  of  its  inclusion,  it 
was  not  set  up.  In  the  preface  Dr.  Kunze  declares  that  it 
is  a  moral  impossibility  for  the  children  of  German  parents 
to  leave  the  Lutheran  Church  for  no  better  reason  than  that 
they  are  unable  to  understand  the  German  language. 

For  they  have,  at  their  confirmation,  entered  the  solemn  promise  of  faith- 
fulness, as  long  as  they  find  the  doctrine  consonant  to  Scripture.  ...  I  know 
of  no  authority  commissioned  to  discharge  any  one  from  this  obligation, 
except  the  interference  of  conscientious  scruples  about  the  salubrity  of  the 
doctrine.  Any  other  consideration  that  ever  induced  a  person  to  break  up 
the  membership  with  a  congregation,  was  a  violation  of  honesty;  for  such 
membership  is  founded  on  a  contract. 

Two  years  later,  the  founding  of  Zion's  Church,  New 
York,  was  followed  by  the  appearance  of  another  book, 
modeled  after  Dr.  Kunze's,  by  his  former  pupil  and  asso- 


NEIV    YORK  HYMN-BOOKS.  34 1 

ciate,  Rev.  George  Strebeck.^  The  proportion  of  transla- 
tions retained  is  very  small.  The  apology  of  the  difficulty 
of  the  meters  is  made  for  the  omission,  and  the  hope  is 
expressed  that  "  none  will  be  so  bigoted  to  mere  name 
as  to  censure  us  for  making  selections  from  authors  who 
are  not  of  our  own  profession  in  religion."  The  liturgy  is 
somewhat  changed.  The  doctrinal  articles  of  the  Augs- 
burg Confessions  are  included. 

The  defection  of  Strebeck  to  the  Episcopal  Church  was 
followed  by  another  book,  prepared  by  his  successor.  Rev. 
Ralph  Williston,^  under  the  authority  of  Dr.  Kunze,  as 
president  of  the  ministerium,  who  certifies  in  a  testimonial 
found  on  one  of  the  first  pages  to  the  thoroughly  Lutheran 
character  of  the  collection,  every  one  of  the  hymns  having 
passed  beneath  his  criticism.  This  book  obtained  wide 
circulation  within  the  New  York  Ministerium.  Many 
copies  are  found  in  Philadelphia,  where  it  was  used  in  St. 
John's  Church,  whose  pastor,  Dr.  P.  F.  Mayer,  was  installed 
by  Mr.  Williston.  The  liturgy  again  receives  modifica- 
tions, and  shows  the 'influence  of  the  Episcopal  prayer- 
book.  The  formula  of  distribution  in  the  Lord's  Supper 
has  become:  ''Jesus  said,"  etc.  The  gospels  and  epistles 
are  printed  in  full,  but  neither  the  catechism  nor  the  Augs- 
burg Confession  are  given. 

When  Mr.  Williston,  with  his  congregation,  entered  the 
Episcopal  Church,  a  hymn-book  and  liturgy  were  published 
by  the  ministerium,  under  the  editorship  of  Drs.  Quitman 

1  "A  Collection  of  Evangelical  Hymns,  made  from  Different  Authors  and 
Collections,  for  the  English  Lutheran  Church  in  New  York,"  by  George 
Strebeck.  New  York,  printed  by  John  Tiebout  (Horner's  Head),  No.  358 
Pearl  Street,  1797. 

2  "A  Choice  Selection  of  Evangelical  Hymns  from  Various  Authors,  for 
the  Use  of  the  English  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  in  New  York,"  by 
Ralph  Williston.  New  York,  printed  and  sold  by  J.  C.  Totten,  No.  155 
Chatham  Street,  1806. 


342  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xx. 

and  Wackerhagen.^  It  contained  five  hundred  and  twenty 
hymns,  and  "  a  new  and  enlarged  hturgy,"  in  conformity 
with  the  relaxed  doctrinal  position  of  its  editors.  The  lit- 
urgy studies  variety,  giving  two  forms  of  confession  of  sin, 
and  two  other  prayers  to  be  used  after  the  singing  of  the  first 
hymn.  Instead  of  the  uniform  general  prayer,  upon  the 
necessity  of  which  the  Pennsylvania  liturgies  of  1748  and 
1 786  insist,  instructing  that  no  other  prayer  be  used  except 
under  very  unusual  circumstances,  the  New  York  gives 
eight  from  which  the  pastor  may  select.  **  Supremely 
exalted  and  adorable  Jehovah,"  *'  Infinite  and  incompre- 
hensible Jehovah,"  "  Self-existent  and  infinite  Jehovah," 
have  become  favorite  modes  of  addressing  God,  instead  of 
the  nearer  and  more  familiar  term  of  **  Father,  reconciled 
in  Christ."  A  variety  of  *'  Benedictions  "  is  given.  There 
is  a  table  of  '*  Gospels  and  Epistles,"  with  the  advice  that 
"  there  is  an  impropriety  in  congregations  confining  them- 
selves, year  after  year,  to  these  portions."  All  allusion  to 
original  sin  is  omitted  from  the  baptismal  address,  which 
dwells  upon  the  significative  character  of  the  sacrament. 
The  Lord's  Supper  is  preceded  by  the  invitation :  *'  I  say 
to  all  who  own  him  as  their  Saviour,  and  resolve  to  be  his 
faithful  subjects:  ye  are  welcome  to  this  feast  of  love." 
The  formula  of  distribution  has,  *' Jesus  said,"  and  the 
rubric  says  that  the  **  minister  is  at  liberty  to  substitute 
any  other  words 'in  place  of  these." 

Contemporary  with  these  later  efforts  were  those  of  Rev. 
Paul  Henkel,  both  in  German  and  English,  whose  mission- 
ary zeal  did  not  prevent  him  from  attempting  to  preserve 


1  "A  Collection  of  Hymns  and  a  Liturgy  for  the  Use  of  Evangelical  Lu- 
theran Churches,  to  which  are  added  Prayers  for  Families  and  Individuals." 
Published  by  order  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Synod  of  the  State  of  New 
York.     Philadelphia,  printed  and  sold  by  G.  and  D.  Billmeyer,  181 7. 


LITURGIES  AND   CATECHISMS.  343 

orthodox  teaching  in  rhymes  of  a  not  very  high  Hterary 
standard. 

At  the  close  of  this  period  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania was  preparing  a  revised  liturgy,  which  was  submitted, 
approved,  and  published  in  18 18,  bearing  on  every  page 
the  marks  of  the  prevalent  deterioration.  The  rubric 
allows  the  pastor  to  substitute  an  extemporaneous  for  the 
general  prayer,  which  the  preceding  liturgies  required  to 
be  uniform,  and  other  lessons  for  the  gospels  and  epistles. 
''The  responsive  character  of  the  service  is  almost  entirely 
lost.  The  New  York  Hturgy  has  evidently  been  before 
the  revisers  and  influenced  them. 

A  translation  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  into  English 
had  been  made  by  Weygand  of  New  York,  and  published 
in  1755,  as  an  appendix  to  a  volume  of  sermons  translated 
from  P.  S.  Nashkow,  a  Danish  preacher,  by  J.  S.  Magens, 
a  wealthy  member  of  Trinity  Church.  Brunnholtz  pub- 
lished an  edition  of  Luther's  Catechism  in  1 749  in  German, 
and  an  English  translation  made  by  himself  and  Peter  Kock, 
the  Swedish-American  merchant,  the  same  year.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  Mr.  Kock's  share  in  the  translation 
was  undertaken  first  for  the  benefit  of  his  own  children, 
who  were  unable  to  understand  the  catechism  sufficiently 
in  German  and  Swedish.  In  1761  Provost  Wrangel  pub- 
lished either  a  new  translation  or  revision  of  this.^ 

American  explanations  of  the  catechism,  either  upon  the 
basis  of  Luther's  or  independent  of  it,  began  to  be  abun- 
dant. Such  were  published  by  Dr.  H.  E.  Muhlenberg 
(1796),'^  Dr.  J.  G.  Schmucker  (1804),  Paul  Henkel  (German 

1  On  American  editions  of  the  catechism  see  Dr.  B.  M.  Schmucker, 
"Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  v.,  pp.  87  sqq.,  165 'sqq.  On  English 
translations  of  Augsburg  Confession,  same  writer,  ibid.,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  5  sqq. 

2  Translated  into  English  by  Dr.  F.  A.  Muhlenberg,  Gettsyburg,  1857. 


344  ^-^^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xx. 

1811,  English  1 8 16),  Dr.  P.  F.  Mayer  (18 16),  C.  F. 
Temme  (Nova  Scotia,  18 16),  Dr.  J.  G.  Lochman  (German, 
2d.  ed.  1808;  English  1822).  Dr.  Quitman's  Catechism 
has  already  been  given  a  fuller  notice.-^ 

From  181 1  to  181 7  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  had 
its  organ  in  the  "  Evangelisches  Magazin,"  ably  edited  by 
Drs.  Helmuth  and  Schmid,  and  invaluable  for  its  histori- 
cal material. 

Drs.  Kunze  and  Helmuth  both  published  volumes  of 
poems.  The  latter  is  more  of  a  true  poet,  reflecting  thd^" 
new  school  of  poetry  that  was  gaining  influence  in  Ger- 
many. His  poetical  contributions  were  numerous,  many 
having  been  printed  and  distributed  on  festive  occasions 
throughout  his  church.  Enough  of  them  on  loose  leaves 
are  preserved  to  fill  a  large  volume.  Dr.  Kunze,  as  a  poet, 
was  less  emotional,  and  more  didactic  and  reflective.  An 
admirer  of  Watts,  he  expressed  the  wish  that  the  hymns 
of  that  English  hymn-writer  should  be  followed  as  a  model 
in  German,  and  gives  an  illustration  by  translating  the 
hymn  beginning  ''Join  all  the  glorious  names."  Dr. 
Kunze's  largest  prose  work^  treats  of  doctrinal  questions 
from  the  practical  standpoint,  and  is  learned,  sober,  and 
devout,  avoiding  no  controverted  question  because  it  is 
controverted,  but  with  calmness  and  impartiality  stating 
the  argument  for  the  Lutheran  position.  Dr.  Helmuth, 
the  mildest  and  most  peaceful  of  all  our  eminent  pastors, 
has  left  a  polemical  treatise  as,  next  to  his  poems,^  his 
chief  literary  monument.      Among  the  rest,  Goering,  F.  D. 

1  On  explanations,  Dr.  B.  M.  Schmucker,  "  Lutheran  Church  Review," 
vol.  v.,  pp.  165  sqq. 

2  "  Ein  Wort  fiir  den  Verstand  und  das  Herz  vom  rechten  und  gebanten 
Lebenswege,"  von  Johann  Christoph  Kunze,  A.M.  (Philadelphia,  1781),  p. 

243- 

3  "  Betrachtung  der  evangelischen  Lehre  von  der  heiligen  Schrift  und 
Taufe,"  etc.,  durch  J.  H.  Christian  Helmuth  (Germantown,  1793),  p.  ZZ^- 


THE    YELLOW  FEVER   OF  1793.  345 

Schaeffer,  J.  G.  Lochman,  and  J.  G.  Schmucker  are  espe- 
cially to  be  mentioned.  The  last  published  in  181  7  a  com- 
mentary on  "The  Revelation  of  St.  John,"  in  two  octavo 
volumes.  Dr.  Lochman,  beside  other  work,  wrote  in 
English  on  the  **  History,  Doctrine,  and  Discipline  of  the 
Lutheran  Church." ^  Goering  and  F.  D.  Schaeffer  entered 
into  popular  polemics,  the  former  against  the  Baptists,  and 
the  latter  against  the  Methodists. 

But  probably  as  interesting  and  edifying  as  any  was  Dr. 
Helmuth's  little  tract  concerning  his  experiences  during 
the  epidemic  of  yellow-fever  in  1793,  in  which — it  seems 
almost  incredible — six  hundred  and  twenty- five  of  the 
members  and  adherents  of  his  congregation  died,  and  re- 
peatedly he  passed  a  large  part  of  the  day  even  to  nightfall 
in  his  graveyard,  burying  the  dead  as  rapidly  as  the  graves 
could  be  prepared.  Amidst  these  scenes  of  sorrow  his 
heart  was  joyful  in  communicating  the  consolations  of 
the  gospel  to  the  sick  and  dying,  and  noting  how  they 
triumphed  over  disease  and  death.  His  diary,  speaking  of 
cases  where  he  believed  his  ministry  blessed  to  the  salva- 
tion of  the  dying,  adds : 

*'  My  God,  what  happiness  to  be  the  deliverer  of  a  single 
soul!  I  would  not  exchange  the  scenes  of  death  in  Phil- 
adelphia for  the  whole  world." 

The  greater  the  danger,  the  greater  the  need,  he  be- 
lieved, for  the  public  services  of  God's  house.  Early  in 
the  morning,  both  on  Sundays  and  week-days,  the  church 
was  open  for  a  service  of  not  over  a  half  or  three  quarters 
of  an  hour,  and  he  preached  as  a  dying  man  to  dying  men, 
having  the  attendance  and  attention  of  a  large  number 
who  at  other  times  were  indifferent  to  religious  matters. 
Discarding  the  ordinary  artificially  prepared  sermon,  he 
spake  as  an  afflicted  father  to  his  stricken,  terrified,  and 
1  Harrisburg,  181 8. 


346  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xx. 

bewildered  children.  **  Never,  during  the  entire  period  of 
our  ministry,"  he  writes,  *'  was  preaching  to  us  such  a 
heartfelt  work  as  we  found  it  during  these  weeks  of  suf- 
fering; and  never,  we  confidently  believe,  were  we  more 
serviceable  to  the  Lord  than  at  that  time."^ 

Two  interesting  historical  facts  ought  to  be  here  pre- 
served as  bearing  upon  the  prominence  of  the  mother- 
church  of  Philadelphia.  One  is  that  of  the  letter  of  Wash- 
ington acknowledging  the  congratulations  sent  him  on  his 
election  to  the  presidency,  and  testifying  to  the  patriotism 
of  the  German  Americans  during  the  Revolutionary  War. 
It  is  addressed  "  To  the  Ministers,  Churchwardens,  and 
Vestrymen  of  the  German  Lutheran  Congregation  in  and 
near  Philadelphia,"  and  among  other  things  says:  **  From 
the  excellent  character  for  diligence,  sobriety,  and  virtue 
which  the  Germans  in  general  who  are  settled  in  America 
have  ever  maintained,  I  cannot  forbear  felicitating  myself 
on  receiving  from  so  respectable  a  number  of  them  such 
strong  assurances  of  their  affection  for  my  person,  confi- 
dence in  my  integrity,  and  zeal  to  support  me  in  my 
endeavors  for  promoting  the  welfare  of  our  common 
country." 

The  other  is  the  following  entry  on  the  journals  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States,  Philadel- 
phia being  at  that  time,  1 799,  the  capital : 


Thursday,  December  26th.  This  being  the  day  appointed  by  the  resolu- 
tion of  Congress  for  the  funeral  procession  in  honor  of  the  memory  of  George 
Washington,  late  general  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States,  the  House  pro- 
ceeded to  the  German  Lutheran  Church,  where  they  attended  the  funeral 
oration  prepared  and  delivered  on  the  occasion  by  Major-General  Lee,  one 
of  the  members  of  the  House  for  the  State  of  Virginia. 

1  The  account  of  Dr.  Helmuth  was  translated  by  Rev.  Dr.  A.  J.  Weddell, 
and  published  in  "The  Lutheran,"  Philadelphia,  during  April  and  May, 
1867. 


WASHINGTON'S  FUNERAL.  347 

It  has  been  sometimes  affirmed  that  in  this  oration  first 
occurred  the  ascription  to  Washington  of  the  title,  *'  First 
in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  country- 
men." This  is  erroneous,  as  these  words  are  found  in  the 
series  of  resolutions  passed  by  the  House  a  few  days  pre- 
vious, on  the  announcement  of  Washington's  death. 


PERIOD  IV. 
REVIVAL   AND   EXPANSION. 

A.D.    1817-1860. 


CHAPTER  XXL 

NEW  FACTORS. — THE  GENERAL  SYNOD. 

The  tercentenary  of  the  Reformation  in  1817  ushered 
in  a  period  of  great  changes  and  wonderful  activity.  Noth- 
ing was  clearer  than  that  Lutheranism  in  America  could 
not  continue  to  develop  its  interests  in  the  quiet  and 
gradual  way  that  had  hitherto  prevailed.  New  issues  were 
upon  it,  which  it  could  not  evade,  and  which  even  forced 
into  activity  the  most  conservative,  except  in  the  secluded 
recesses  of  the  most  remote  country  districts. 

The  extension  of  territory  to  the  westward,  the  founding 
of  new  States  and  Territories,  the  construction  of  roads  and 
canals,  gave  an  impulse  to  immigration  from  the  older 
settlements  in  the  East.  Immigration  in  America  during 
the  present  century  has  proceeded  in  parallel  columns,  fol- 
lowing the  lines  of  latitude,  unless  an  exception  be  found 
in  western  New  York,  where  the  Hudson  River  and  Erie 
Canal  turned  the  overflow  of  the  southeastern  corner  to 
some  extent  toward  the  lake  shore.  The  Pennsylvania 
Lutherans  as  a  rule  found  a  home,  when  they  went  west- 
ward, in  central  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  lUinois,  as  those  States 
were  founded.  North  Carolina  poured  its  people  into  Ten- 
nessee, and  thence,  with  Virginians,  who  settled  Kentucky 
and  southern  Ohio,  into  southern  Illinois.  Such  immi- 
gration was  imposing  new  responsibilities  and  making  new 
demands. 

The  cessation  of  immigration  to  a  very  great  extent 
since  the  Revolutionary  War  had  enabled  the  population 

351 


352  THE  LUTHEl^ANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

to  become  more  thoroughly  assimilated  to  permanent  con- 
ditions in  America.  The  strenuous  advocates  of  Pennsyl- 
vania Germanism  had  no  thought  of  any  allegiance  which 
they  owed  to  the  country  whence  they  came.  It  w^as  a 
nativistic  clannishness,  which  they  thought  compatible  with 
loyalty  to  American  institutions.  The  German  element 
had  been  prominent  among  the  founders  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  was  becoming  more  so.  The  Lutherans  of 
Pennsylvania  had  furnished  the  first  speaker  of  the  national 
House  of  Representatives,  the  president  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania convention  to  deliberate  on  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  a  United  States  senator,  and,  during  the 
period  on  which  we  enter,  several  governors,  one  John 
Andrew  Schultze  (1823-29),  a  former  pastor  in  the  min- 
isterium,  and  a  grandson  of  Muhlenberg.  In  New  York 
one  of  the  most  prominent  laymen  of  the  Schoharie  dis- 
trict, William  C.  Bouck  (1842-44),  reached  the  same  place. 
Descendants  of  American  soldiers,  of  members  of  the  con- 
ventions to  frame  the  State  constitutions,  of  the  Colonial 
and  State  legislatures,  were  scattered  throughout  the  con- 
gregations, and  mingled  with  those  who,  without  military 
or  political  honors,  had  intimate  business  relations  through- 
out the  land. 

The  new  demands  created  the  need  of  a  wider  education 
than  had  hitherto  been  furnished.  The  boundaries  of  the 
church,  and  even  of  common  national  origin,  were  disap- 
pearing beneath  such  pressure.  The  leaven  was  constantly 
working  downward,  especially  when,  under  the  adminis- 
tration of  Governor  Wolf  (1829-35),  the  Pennsylvania 
common-school  system  was  introduced.  Intermarriage 
with  the  English  and  Scotch- Irish  elements  was  becoming 
frequent ;  and  the  effects  were  felt,  partially  in  the  current 
away  from  the  German  churches  thus  formed,  or  where 
the  religious  convictions  of  the  Lutheran  wife  were  stronger 


JV£PF   WAVES   OF  IMMIGRATION.  353 

than  those  of  her  husband,  in  the  new  names  of  the  second 
generation,  clearly  not  of  German  origin,  appearing  on  the 
registers. 

Candidates  for  the  Lutheran  ministry  were  in  attendance 
at  the  denominational  and  other  colleges  that  were  coming 
into  existence.  Columbia  College,  New  York ;  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania ;  Dickinson  College,  Carlisle ;  Jef- 
ferson College,  Canonsburg;  either  had  or  were  soon  to 
have  students  and  graduates  in  the  Lutheran  churches  and 
ministry.  The  influence  of  Christian  scholars  of  decided 
convictions  and  of  other  forms  of  religious  life  upon  those 
thus  trained  was  inevitable.  When  the  Presbyterian 
Church  established  its  theological  seminary  at  Princeton, 
N.  J.,  in  18 1 2,  Lutheran  candidates  for  the  ministry  were 
soon  among  its  students,  and  found  there  students  from 
the  Episcopal  and  perhaps  other  churches,  with  whom  they 
became  intimate.  Who  w^ould  aflirm  that  the  influences 
there  exerted  were  not  to  be  preferred  to  the  neology 
that  had  gained  the  upper  hand  at  all  the  centers  in  Ger- 
many? When  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Germany  could 
offer  nothing  better,  it  was  only  natural  to  look  beyond 
the  Lutheran  Church  for  the  advocates  of  a  more  posi- 
tive faith.  Nor,  under  these  circumstances,  was  it  to  be 
wondered  at  that  an  open  door  was  found  in  some  places 
for  revivalistic  methods,  which  were  becoming  prevalent 
throughout  the  country. 

Just  at  this  time  new  movements  enter  from  Germany. 
The  East,  as  it  sends  its  thousands  westward,  is  replenished 
by  a  new  immigration.  While  the  East  absorbs  a  large 
portion^,  the  wave  does  not  stop  there,  but  runs  through 
the  channels  made  by  those  who  have  preceded,  until  it 
reaches  the  very  frontier.  During  this  period  over  a  mill- 
ion and  a  half  of  Germans  came.  To  show  the  progress, 
the  following  table  for  one  year  every  decade  is  service- 


354  ^^^   LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

able.  The  number  of  German  immigrants  landing  in  the 
United  States  were:  In  1820,  999;  1830,  2658;  1840, 
30,904;  1850,83,921;  1860,57,404.  From  1820  to  1892 
the  number  of  German  immigrants  was  4,731,023.  Among 
them  there  were  large  numbers  of  Lutherans.  Settling  in 
the  larger  cities,  as  many  of  them  did,  they  filled  the  old 
churches,  and  rendered  them  indifferent  to  the  loss  of  the 
descendants  of  their  founders.  At  other  places,  where  a 
mingling  in  the  same  congregation  suggested  difficulties, 
they  rendered  necessary  the  founding  of  new  congrega- 
tions. They  helped  greatly  to  check  the  movement  toward 
the  obliteration  of  denominational  distinctions  that  was 
in  operation.  In  the  State  of  New  York  they  gradually 
brought  the  ministerium  back  from  the  English  into  the 
German  language,  and  saved  it  from  the  Socinianizing  tend- 
ency, against  which  its  best  men  were  battling.  The  gather- 
ing of  their  children  into  churches  and  Sunday-schools  was 
a  great  stimulus  to  missionary  enterprise. 

With  these  new  immigrants  the  national  spirit  was 
stronger  than  with  their  predecessors  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  however  much  some  of  the  latter  may  have 
struggled  for  language.  Religious  motives  had  largely 
prompted  the  latter;  and  they  came,  crushed  and  humili- 
ated by  their  poverty  and  distresses,  to  seek  whatever 
home  God  would  allot  them.  The  later  immigrants  were 
thoroughly  sensible  of  the  new  glories  of  their  fatherland, 
to  which  more  recent  years  had  made  them  the  heirs. 
They  came  from  a  Germany  whose  language  had  been 
enriched  by  the  literature  of  Schiller  and  Goethe,  and 
whose  thought  had  been  deepened  by  the  speculations  of 
Kant  and  Hegel.  Even  the  humiliations  to  which  the 
Napoleonic  wars  had  subjected  them  had  only  served  to 
unify  their  national  feeling,  and,  as  the  yoke  of  their  oppress- 
or was  removed,  to  stimulate  their  national  pride.     While, 


REACTIONARY  GERMAN  MOVEMENTS.  355 

as  a  rule,  a  better  class  of  people,  if  education  and  position 
be  considered,  than  the  peasantry  who  had  preceded  them, 
their  faith  only  too  often  had  been  completely  supplanted 
by  wild  ideas  of  intellectual  hcense,  or  of  visionary  indi- 
vidualism. Those  among  then!  who  clung  to  the  church 
were  in  constant  danger  of  being  withdrawn  from  its  com- 
munion or  neglecting  its  worship  through  the  example  and 
teachings  of  the  representatives  of  the  more  distinctively 
German  national  spirit  in  America.  The  German  secular 
press  of*to-day  is  a  sufficient  illustration  of  what  is  here 
stated.  As  usual  in  every  extremity,  the  Lord  of  the 
church  provided,  in  time,  among  the  immigrants  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  at  least  a  few  pastors,  thoroughly 
trained  in  all  the  later  phases  of  German  thought,  and  the 
heirs  of  all  that  was  best  in  her  history,  to  stand  as  the 
representatives  of  a  purer  and  more  positive  faith,  and  to 
aid  in  staying  the  current  of  infidehty  and  socialism  that 
was  threatened. 

A  more  positive  faith  was  awakening  in  Germany  itself. 
The  year  181 7  was  that  of  the  Theses  of  Claus  Harms, 
and  of  the  formation  of  the  Prussian  Union  by  King  Fred- 
eric of  Prussia.  Unjust  and  oppressive  as  the  latter  was 
to  the  Lutheran  Church,  it  was  a  well-meant  but  unfortu- 
nate attempt  to  bring  together  the  friends  of  a  positive  faith 
within  both  confessions.  Its  great  theologian,  Schleier- 
macher,  is  to  be  judged  very  differently,  as  he  rises  above 
the  prevalent  rationalism,  from  one  who,  starting  in  a  con- 
fessional camp,  would  reach  Schleiermacher's  theological 
standpoint.  However  open  to  criticism,  the  movement  was 
positive  and  upward.  Nor  were  these  church  movements 
in  Germany  without  their  students  in  the  Lutheran  min- 
istry in  America.  The  periodicals  for  which  they  sub- 
scribed, and  the  books  which  they  imported  and  marked, 
are  constantly  accessible. 


356  THE   LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

The  movements  preliminary  to  the  Prussian  Union  of 
1 817  combined  with  the  feeling  caused  by  the  common 
interests  of  language  and  intermarriage  among  the  Re- 
formed and  Lutherans  in  Pennsylvania  to  suggest  the 
thought  of  a  union  betwee'n  the  two  denominations.  This 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  embodied  in  any  formal  action. 
The  proposed  common  theological  seminary  has  already 
been  mentioned.  The  Reformed,  with  the  Episcopalians 
and  Presbyterians,  were  invited  by  the  Ministerium  of 
Pennsylvania  to  unite  in  the  celebration  of  the  tercente- 
nary of  the  Reformation. 

The  answer  of  Rt.  Rev.  William  White,  of  the  Protestant 

Episcopal  Church,  was  directed  to  Rev.  Dr.  G.  Lochman, 

and  was  as  follows : 

Philadelphia,  October  14,  1807. 

Reverend  Sir  :  I  received  the  letter  with  which  you  honored  me,  dated 
July  23,  181 7.  In  answer  I  take  occasion  to  inform  you  that  it  will  give  me 
great  satisfaction  to  join  with  the  reverend  ministers  and  with  the  whole 
body  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  in  this  city,  on  the  day  appointed,  in  return- 
ing thanks  to  Almighty  God  for  the  beginning  of  the  blessed  Reformation 
in  the  three  hundredth  year  preceding ;  and  in  raising  up  for  that  purpose 
the  great  and  good  man  who  has  transmitted  to  your  church  his  name,  and 
whose  praise  is  in  all  the  churches  of  the  Reformation. 

This  occasion  must,  of  course,  be  the  more  welcome  to  me  on  account  of 
the  agreement  in  doctrine  which  has  always  been  considered  as  subsisting 
between  the  Lutheran  churches  and  the  Church  of  England ;  the  mother  of 
that  of  which  Lam  a  minister. 

You  will  probably  be  aware,  reverend  sir,  that,  under  the  existing  institu- 
tions of  the  Episcopal  Church,  it  is  irregular  to  have  especial  subjects  of 
celebration,  unless  it  be  the  act  of  the  whole  body,  or  at  the  call  of  the  civil 
authority.  We  have  had  no  opportunity  of  taking  the  sense  of  our  general 
convention  on  the  subject. 

That  the  Lutheran  churches  may  always,  as  heretofore,  be  prominent  in 
the  profession  of  God's  holy  and  eternal  truth,  and  that  you,  reverend  sir, 
may  be  an  instrument  in  the  hand  of  God  to  that  effect,  is  the  wish  and  the 
prayer  of,  reverend  sir, 

Your  brother  in  Christ,  and  very  humble  servant, 

Wm.  White. 

Dr.  W.  A.  Muhlenberg  has  said  :  "  In  the  case  of  any 
one  coming  into  our  church  who  had  been  confirmed  by 


DIVISION  OF   THE   MINISTERIUM.  357 

a  Lutheran  clergyman,  Bishop  White  did  not  think  it 
necessary  to  repeat  the  rite."  ^ 

The  celebration  undoubtedly  had  its  effect  in  quickening 
the  pastors  and  their  churches  to  a  higher  appreciation  of 
what  was  involved  in  their  Lutheran  confession.  After 
deliberating,  therefore,  on  the  project  of  a  union  seminary 
with  the  Reformed  Church,  and  recommending  a  union 
hymn-book,  it  was  natural  for  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania to  resolve,  in  1818,  that,  "  in  its  judgment,  it  would 
be  well  if  the  different  Evangelical  Lutheran  synods  in  the 
United  States  were  to  stand,  in  some  way  or  other,  in  true 
union  with  one  another,"  and  to  appoint  its  officers  to 
correspond  with  the  other  two  synods  (New  York  and 
North  Carolina)  on  the  subject.  • 

The  motive  seems  to  have  been  more  than  a  centraliz- 
ing one.  It  was  a  provision  having  reference  to  a  further 
division  of  the  ministerium  that  seemed  inevitable.  The 
Ohio  Conference  was  already  taking  measures  to  become 
a  separate  synod.  The  Virginia  Conference,  it  was  fore- 
seen, must  speedily  follow.  Even  the  Lancaster  Confer- 
ence, with  its  missionary  zeal,  could  not  be  absolutely 
depended  on  to  be  content  with  the  more  slow  and  delib- 
erate policy  that  prevailed  at  the  center.  The  aim  was  to 
find  some  way  whereby  the  unity  of  organization  might 
be  maintained  while  local  interests  might  be  more  effi- 
ciently administered  by  a  subdivision,  and  then  to  ask  New 
York  and  North  Carolina  to  unite  with  the  new  districts  of 
the  old  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  in  forming  a  central 
body.  An  amicable  controversy  with  the  North  Carolina 
Synod  on  the  validity  of  ministerial  acts  performed  by 
licentiates  had,  no  doubt,  something  to  do  with  the  propo- 
sition. North  Carolina  disliked  the  entire  licentiate  sys- 
tem, but  emphasized  much  "  the  necessary  unity  with  the 

1  Sermon  at  The  Trappe,  p.  26. 


358  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

mode  of  procedure  of  our  brethren  in  the  Lutheran  Minis- 
terium  in  Pennsylvania,  which  should  be  preserved  as  a 
holy  sanctuary."  ^  There  was  prolonged  correspondence 
on  the  subject,  and  the  younger  synod  felt  aggrieved  that 
twenty-nine  licentiates  should,  with  the  twenty-two  or- 
dained ministers  of  the  mother-synod,  answer  their  pro- 
tests adversely.  A  decision  of  a  general  body  was  longed 
for. 

In  North  Carolina,  therefore,  the  thought  was  welcomed, 
especially  as  the  negotiations  of  that  synod  with  the  Epis- 
copalians and  their  exchange  of  delegates  enabled  it  to 
prize  the  more  highly  a  more  thoroughly  organized  form 
of  government.  Rev.  G.  Schober  was  sent  to  the  meeting 
of  the  ministerium  at  Baltimore,  in  1819,  with  instructions 
to  do  all  in  his  power  to  bring  the  proposed  union  about. 
He  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  committee  that  pre- 
pared '*  A  Proposed  Plan,"-  which  was  adopted  by  a  vote 
of  forty  to  eight. 

In  New  York  the  thought  met  with  favor,  but  the  plan 
adopted  by  Pennsylvania  was  unanimously  rejected  and  a 
committee  appointed  to  correspond  further  on  the  subject. 
New  York  preferred  to  have  an  annual  interchange  of 
delegates  among  all  the  synods.-^ 

In  Ohio,  where  the  synod  was  organized  in  181 8,  the 
plan  was  rejected,  largely  in  consequence  of  an  anonymous 
document  giving  eight  objections  to  it.  Among  these 
were  such  as  the  following :  The  introduction  of  uniform 
hymn-books  and  liturgies  is  contrary  to  Art.  VII.  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession  ;  the  freedom  and  parity  of  the  min- 

1  "  Minutes,"  1816,  p.  10. 

2  Plan  is  given  by  Rev.  J.  W.  Early  in  article  on  "  The  Organization  of 
the  General  Synod,"  drawn  mostly  from  manuscript  records  of  the  Ministe- 
rium of  Pennsylvania,  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  xi.,  pp.  61  sqq. 

3  "  Americanische  Ansichten  von  dem  Gottesdienst  und  andern  Eigenheiten 
der  Deutschen  "  (Philadelphia,  January,  1820),  p.  46. 


THE   HAGERSrOWN  COiVVENTION.  359 

istry  is  infringed  upon,  since  the  delegates  to  the  General 
Synod  will  usurp  their  rights ;  an  act  of  incorporation  will 
follow,  and  the  resolutions  will  be  enforced  by  the  strong 
arm  of  the  law ;  the  Ministerium  of  Ohio  must  remain  a 
German-speaking  body,  and,  in  the  General  Synod,  the 
English  will  soon  prevail ;  etc.^ 

Undaunted,  however,  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania, 
sustained  by  North  Carolina,  pursued  its  course  and  in- 
augurated the  plan.  The  convention  to  adopt  a  constitu- 
tion was  held  in  Hagerstown,  Md.,  beginning  October  22, 
1820.  New  York  thought  better  of  its  action  the  preced- 
ing year,  and  sent  two  clerical  delegates.  The  Virginia 
Conference  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  which  had 
become  a  separate  synod  that  year,  and  which,  with  the 
congregations  in  Maryland,  now  formed  the  Synod  of 
Maryland  and  Virginia,  was  represented.  Altogether 
there  appeared  four  synods,  with  eleven  clerical  and  four 
lay  delegates,  eight  from  Pennsylvania  and  seven  from  the 
other  synods.  But  the  North  Carolina  Synod  had  been 
broken  four  months  before  by  the  withdrawal  of  the 
pastors  and  congregations  which  formed  the  Tennessee 
Synod. 

At  the  next  meeting  of  the  Pennsylvania  Synod,  in  face 
of  a  protest  from  one  of  the  pastoral  charges,  the  consti- 
tution of  the  General  Synod  was  adopted,  after  a  long 
discussion,  by  the  overwhelming  majority  of  sixty-seven 
to  six.  But  when  the  General  Synod  at  last  convened  at 
Frederick,  Md.,  October  21-23,  1821,  there  were  but  ten 
delegates  present,  six  of  whom  (Drs.  J.  G.  Schmucker, 
G.  Lochman,  and  C.  Endress,  with  three  laymen)  were 
from  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  while  Revs.  G. 
Schober  and  D.  Scherer  represented  North  Carolina,  and 
Rev.   D.   F.  Schaeffer  and  a  lay  delegate  Maryland  and 

1   Ibid.,  p.  46. 


36o  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

Virginia.  New  York  was  not  represented  in  any  conven- 
tion until  1837.  Oliio  elected  delegates  for  the  conven- 
tion of  1823,  but  when  it  was  learned  that  the  Ministerium 
of  Pennsylvania  had  withdrawn,  they  did  not  attend/  and 
this  synod  never  joined  the  General  Synod. 

The  withdrawal  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  in 
1823,  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  leaders  of  that  synod 
were  unable  to  overcome  the  opposition  of  the  congrega- 
tions in  the  rural  districts.  The  Reformed  as  well  as  the 
Lutheran  Church  was  passing  through  a  crisis.  A  coun- 
try schoolteacher,  by  the  name  of  Carl  Gock,  published  a 
small  volume,  in  which  he  excited  the  prejudices  of  the 
country  people  against  the  projected  General  Synod  of 
the  Reformed  Church.  The  scheme  was  declared  to  be  a 
plan  of  the  ministers  to  tread  the  rights  of  the  people  under 
foot.  An  entire  chapter  was  devoted  to  a  picture  of  the 
despotism  exercised  by  Catholic  priests  in  Europe,  and 
a  warning  that  the  formation  of  a  General  Synod  was  at- 
tended with  such  perils.  Another  chapter  dwells  on  the 
great  evils  of  theological  seminaries,  and  urges  that  the 
money  of  the  people  would  be  better  spent  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  elementary  schools.  All  the  proceedings  of 
a  General  Synod,  it  is  urged,  will  be  in  English,  and  the 
rights  of  the  German  will  be  given  away,  because  the  lay 
delegates  will  not  know  what  is  transpiring.  It  will  be 
*' an  aristocratic  spiritual  congress."  As  to  the  expenses, 
**  who  is  to  pay  ?  We  farmers.  Collections  upon  collec- 
tions," etc.- 

Ludicrous  though  the  book  appear  to  those  who  read  it 

1  Spielman,  p.  15. 

2  The  writer  becomes  most  eloquent  in  the  apostrophe: 

"  Spirit  of  Washington,  appear  from  the  spirit  world,  quicken  in  us  the 
true  sense  of  freedom,  in  order  that  the  foundation  thou  hast  laid  we  may 
defend  even  with  our  blood." 


PENNSYLVANIA    WITHDRAWS.  36 1 

now,  such  prejudices  diffused  far  and  wide  among  ignorant 
and  narrow-minded  people  were  sure  to  do  damage.  So 
closely  connected  were  the  Reformed  and  the  Lutherans 
— worshiping  in  many  places  in  the  same  churches,  bound 
together  in  a  most  tangled  web  of  intermarriages,  and 
politically  combined  against  the  imagined  encroachments 
of  the  Anglo-Americans — that  any  matter  of  general  in- 
terest in  one  communion  was  almost  as  deeply  felt  in  the 
other. 

The  country  clergy,  from  the  beginning,  had  not  cared 
much  for  the  General  Synod,  which  had  its  chief  advocates 
in  Philadelphia,  Harrisburg,  York,  Lancaster,  and  Reading. 
While  they  had  generally  voted  for  it,  they  made  no 
efforts,  when  the  excitement  against  it  arose  among  their 
people,  to  instruct  them  or  withstand  the  current,  but  ac- 
quiesced and  carried  their  demands  to  synod. 

The  form  of  the  opposition,  however,  was  that  the  Gen- 
eral Synod  interfered  with  the  plans  that  had  been  pro- 
jected for  a  closer  union  with  the  Reformed,  and  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  Lutheran- Reformed  theological  seminary. 
Congregations  in  Lehigh  County  petitioned  the  synod,  for 
this  reason,  to  ''return  to  the  old  order  of  things";  and 
the  synod,  in  the  spirit  of  charity  toward  its  congregations, 
in  order  that  nothing  might  interrupt  the  mutual  fraternal 
love  that  subsisted  between  the  brethren,  consented,  by  a 
vote  of  seventy-two  to  nine,^  to  desert  the  child  which  it 
had  brought  into  being. 

The  General  Synod  must  be  regarded  as  a  very  impor- 
tant forward  movement,  and  its  influence  as  beneficial.  It 
necessarily  was  not  without  the  weaknesses  that  character- 

1  The  nine  were :  Dr.  G.  Lochman,  Revs.  J.  Herbst,  B.  Keller,  C.  F. 
Cruse  (afterward  an  Episcopalian,  and  translator  of  Eusebius),  and  J.  Schnee  ; 
and  the  lay  delegates  Barnitz  of  York,  Stoever  of  Germantown,  Schmeiser  of 
Gettysburg,  and  Bohn  of  Berlin. 


362  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

ized  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America  at  that  time.  One 
who  ignores  the  entire  historical  development  will  find 
much  to  criticise  and  condemn,  when  examined  from  the 
standpoint  of  what  is  demanded  by  consistency  with 
accurate  theological  definitions  and  clear  conceptions  of 
church  polity.  But  he  will  find  just  as  much  that  incurs 
the  same  judgment  in  the  proceedings  of  the  synods  that 
united  to  form  it.  The  faults  peculiar  to  each  synod  were 
lost,  while  only  the  common  faults  of  them  all  remained. 
The  General  Synod  was  a  protest  against  the  Socinianizing 
tendency  in  New  York  and  the  schemes  of  a  union  with 
the  Reformed  in  Pennsylvania  and  with  the  Episcopalians 
in  North  Carolina.  It  stood  for  the  independent  existence 
of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America,  and  the  clear  and 
unequivocal  confession  of  a  positive  faith.  It  failed,  as  its 
founders  in  the  several  synods  had  failed,  in  specifically 
determining  the  contents  of  this  faith.  It  was  not  ready 
yet,  as  these  synods  were  not  ready,  to  return  to  the  foun- 
dations laid  by  Muhlenberg  and  his  associates,  and  from 
which  there  had  been  a  general  recession  from  twenty-five 
to  thirty  years  before.  Lament  defects  as  we  may,  the 
General  Synod  saved  the  church,  as  it  became  anglicized, 
from  the  calamity  of  the  type  of  doctrine  which  within  the 
New  York  Ministerium  had  been  introduced  into  the  Eng- 
lish language.  It  had  an  outlook  that  included  in  its  sweep 
the  entire  church  in  all  its  interests,  as  the  reports  on  the 
state  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  in  the  various  synods  of  the 
country  and  throughout  the  world,  appended  to  its  min- 
utes, show. 

Between  the  General  Synod  and  the  bodies  that  stood 
outside  of  it  there  was  no  antagonism.  Synods,  within 
and  outside  of  the  General  Synod,  interchanged  delegates. 
Pastors  and  congregations  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania warmly  sympathized  with  movements  occurring  in 


STRUGGLING   IN   WEAKNESS.  363 

the  General  Synod,  and  freely  contributed  to  them.  Con- 
cerning this  relationship,  Dr.  S.  S.  Schmucker  has  testi- 
fied: 

Much  might  be  said  of  the  honorable  manner  in  which  the  greater  part 
of  the  brethren  and  churches  in  East  Pennsylvania  and  elsewhere,  whilst 
yielding  to  the  prejudices  of  the  weaker  members,  yet  continued  to  afford 
their  substantial  and  increasing  aid  to  every  good  work  undertaken  by  this 
synod,  so  that  much  of  the  credit  for  what  has  been  achieved  is  justly  due  to 
their  cooperation.  ^ 

But  for  many  years  it  was  numerically  small,  and  could 
claim  scarcely  more  than  to  keep  in  remembrance  the  idea 
of  the  desirability  of  a  general  organization  of  synods  in 
the  probable  distant  future.  After  the  withdrawal  of  the 
mother- synod,  its  members  living  west  of  the  Susquehanna 
had  formed  the  West  Pennsylvania  Synod  in  1823.  For 
eight  years,  until  1831,  it  comprised  the  three  relatively 
small  synods  of  North  Carolina,  Maryland  and  Virginia, 
and  West  Pennsylvania.  The  Hartwick  Synod — a  child 
of  the  New  York  Ministerium — was  admitted  that  year, 
and  four  years  later  came  the  South  Carolina  Synod.  In 
1837  the  New  York  Ministerium  returned.  In  1829  there 
were  one  hundred  and  twenty-»three  ministers  in  the  syn- 
ods not  connected  with  the  General  Synod,  and  seventy- 
four  within  it.  In  1834,  out  of  60,971  communicants  the 
General  Synod  had  20,249,  and  the  Ministerium  of  Penn- 
sylvania 26,882. 

The  experience  of  the  church  of  former  days  had  to  be 
lived  over,  and  the  value  of  a  confessional  position  to  be 
learned  by  all  alike,  amidst  the  conflicts  to  maintain  denom- 
inational existence  through  which  they  passed.  Indefi- 
nite and  unsatisfactory  although  that  of  the  Ministerium 
of  Pennsylvania  was,  nevertheless  there  remained  in  its 

1  "  Retrospect  of  Lutheranism"  (Baltiniore,  1841),  p.  19. 


364  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

congregations  the  traditions  of  a  better  period,  which  were 
never  entirely  forsaken,  and  a  conservative  spirit  combined 
with  sincere  and  unobtrusive  piety  in  many  cases  where 
the  appearances  would  have  denied  it.  There  was  genuine 
life  there,  awaiting  the  hour  for  a  fuller  development.  It 
was  not  an  unmixed  evil  that  all  the  synods  were  not  in- 
cluded in  the  General  Synod,  and  that  the  growth  was  in 
parallel  lines.  In  many  of  the  congregations  of  the  Gen- 
eral Synod  the  conservatism  was  almost  equally  as  strong 
'as  in  the  older  synods  which  stood  aloof;  and  from  the 
laity,  again  and  again,  as  in  the  Pennsylvania  Synod  of 
18 1 3,  came  forth  those  who  could  not  accept  of  the  more 
radical  positions  of  professors  and  leaders,  which  they  saw 
were  different  from  the  spirit  and  temper  of  the  religion  of 
their  fathers  and  mothers. 

Within  the  General  Synod,  the  process  of  anglicizing 
proceeding  with  greater  rapidity,  the  lack  of  the  presence 
of  confessional  safeguards  was  more  quickly  felt,  as  the 
influence  of  other  denominations  became  more  pressing. 
According  to  the  conception  of  prominent  leaders,  the 
General  Synod  was  nothing  more  than  the  realization  of 
Zinzendorf's  dream  of  1742,^  which  the  coming  of  Muhlen- 
berg had  so  quickly  dissipated.  But  there  were  always 
those  who,  however  peaceful  and  sometimes  inconsistent, 
were  at  heart  true  to  the  faith  of  the  church,  and  hoped  to 
see  the  General  Synod,  to  which  they  were  most  heartily 
devoted,  still  clearer  in  its  testimony. 

The  establishment  of  a  theological  seminary  was  one  of 
the  first  subjects  to  which  the  attention  of  the  General 
Synod  was  called.  It  was  introduced  by  a  letter  of  Rev. 
Dr.  F.  W.  Geissenhainer,  Sr.,  who  had  been  a  privat- 
docent  at  Gottingen  and  a  succcessful  instructor  of  candi- 
dates for  the  ministry  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania.      If 

1  See  Chapter  xi.,  pp.  197  sqq. 


S.    S.    SCHMUCKER.  365 

the  two  older  synods  had  remained  in  the  General  Synod, 
the  seminary  would  probably  have  been  established  in 
eastern  Pennsylvania.  With  the  Susquehanna  the  eastern 
and  northern  boundary  of  the  General  Synod,  the  location 
of  the  seminary  at  Gettysburg,  in  1826,  was  natural.  The 
first  professor  elected  was  a  young  man,  twenty-seven 
years  old,  who  for  nearly  half  a  century  exercised,  as  pro- 
fessor, author,  and  ecclesiastical  leader,  a  most  powerful 
influence. 

Samuel  Simon  Schmucker  was  the  eldest  son  of  Rev. 
Dr.  J.  G.  Schmucker.  Born  in  1799,  he  was  early  placed 
under  the  care  of  his  father's  theological  preceptor  and 
lifelong  friend.  Dr.  Helmuth,  of  Philadelphia.^  He  left 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  at  the  close  of  the  sopho- 
more year,  but  was  graduated  while  a  theological  stu- 
dent at  Princeton.  He  graduated  at  Princeton  Theologi- 
cal Seminary  in  1820,  having  been  a  pupil  of  Drs.  A. 
Alexander  and  S.  Miller,  and  a  fellow-student  of  Bishops 
Mcllvaine  and  Johns  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  of 
Dr.  Charles  Hodge.  From  1820  to  1826  he  was  pastor 
at  New  Market,  Va.,  and  its  vicinity.  In  1823  he  first 
appeared  as  a  delegate  to  the  General  Synod,  and  at 
once  assumed  the  leadership.  While  at  New  Market  he 
became  theological  preceptor  of  a  number  of  candidates 
for  the  ministry.  In  1822  he  prepared  the  *' Formula 
for  the  Government  and  Discipline  of  the  Lutheran 
Church,"  for  the  Synod  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  which 
was  afterward  adopted  by  the  General  Synod,  and  deter- 
mined the  organization  and  administration  of  its  congre- 
gations and  synods.  From  the  convention  to  establish 
the  General  Synod  in  18 19  until  1870  he  was  present, 
either  as  visitor  or  as  delegate,  at  every  convention. 

1  May  4,    1807,   Dr.  Helmuth  writes:    "If  the  little  man  were  my  own 
child,  I  could  not  wish  for  him  more  good  from  the  Lord." 


366  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

The  associations  formed  during  his  student  days  in 
Philadelphia  and  at  Princeton  were  maintained  and  ex- 
tended. He  was  on  terms  of  intimate  friendship  and  cor- 
respondence with  many  of  the  leading  divines  of  other 
churches,  and  active  in  the  American  Tract  Society  and 
other  general  organizations.  The  May  anniversaries  in 
New  York  were  habitually  attended.  He  was  one  of  the 
first  advocates  of  the  movement  that  culminated  in  the 
formation  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  in  1846,  and  at- 
tended the  opening  sessions  in  London,  in  company  with 
other  representatives  from  the  General  Synod.  He  threw 
all  the  energy  of  his  life  into  the  General  Synod  and  the 
institutions  at  Gettysburg,  withholding  from  them  no 
amount  of  personal  sacrifice  or  toil.  Perfectly  imper- 
turbable, he  moved  forward  toward  the  end  in  view  without 
regard  to  obstacles.  Never  have  higher  executive  abilities 
been  at  the  service  of  the  church.  He  was  excelled  by 
colleagues  and  pupils  in  width  and  depth  of  scholarship, 
in  critical  skill,  and  in  love  of  research — he  was  neither  an 
exegete  nor  an  historian  nor  a  dogmatician,  in  the  proper 
sense  of  the  term — but  was  distinguished  for  acuteness 
and  his  desire  to  reduce  everything  to  the  most  logical 
and  systematic  form.  The  effect  of  the  later  Pietism  was, 
however,  clearly  discernible  in  the  standard  of  theological 
education  presented  in  his  inaugural,  where  he  urged  that 
theological  professors  must  not  be  rigid  in  demanding 
thorough  preparation  of  recitations  by  their  students. 
"  Too  great  rigor  of  recitation  would  force  the  student  of 
humbler  talents  to  subtract  from  the  hours  of  devotion 
that  he  may  add  to  those  of  study.  Such  intellectual 
pressure,  long  continued,  would  impair  the  spirituality  of 
his  religious  exercises."  His  advice  was  that  if  a  student 
were  suffering  from  any  ''doubts  and  fears,"  he  should 
suspend  his  studies  for  the  time,  and  "  devote  whole  days 


THE    GETTYSBURG   SEMINARY.  367 

to  practical  reading  and  exercises,  until  he  regain  a  pre- 
ponderance of  spiritual  feeling." 

His  theological  standpoint  can  never  be  involved  in 
controversy  ;  he  was  too  outspoken  in  confessing  it.  Be- 
ginning with  a  more  conservative  position,  he  soon  publicly- 
protested,  from  the  professor's  chair  and  from  the  press, 
not  only  against  the  distinctive  Lutheran  doctrines  con- 
cerning the  sacraments,  but  against  those  of  original  sin 
and  the  Person  of  Christ.  In  his  **  Popular  Theology," 
his  "  Lutheran  Manual,"  and  "  American  Lutheranism 
Vindicated,"  he  teaches  what  he  regards  a  modified  Lu- 
theranism, which  retains  the  elements  of  truth  found,  as 
he  believed,  with  a  number  of  errors,  in  the  Lutheranism 
of  the  Augsburg  Confession.  In  the  ''  Definite  Synodical 
Platform,"  prepared  by  him  in  1855,  he  expurgated  and 
changed  the  doctrinal  articles  of  the  Augsburg  Confession, 
and,  in  a  preface,  states  what  he  regards  the  five  errors  of 
that  document.^ 

These,  however,  were  only  individual  opinions  of  the 
most  influential  professor.  No  colleague  ever  indorsed 
them.  The  seminary  was  placed  by  the  General  Synod,  in 
1825,  upon  the  most  unequivocal  basis  of  a  subscription 
to  the  Augsburg  Confession. 

In  this  seminary  shall  be  taught,  in  the  German  and  English  languages, 
the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  sacred  Scriptures  as  contained  in  the  Augs- 
burg Confession. 

Every  professor  was  required  to  declare : 

I  believe  the  Augsburg  Confession  and  the  catechisms  of  Luther  to  be  a 
summary  and  just  exhibition  of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Word  of 
God.2 

The  interpretation  made  afterward  to  justify  the  teach- 
ing that  there  were  errors  in  the  Augsburg  Confession, 

1  For  a  critical  estimate  of  Dr.  Schmucker's  position,  see  Schaff,  "Amer- 
ica, Political,  Social,  and  Religious,"  pp.  287  sqq. 

2  "  Catalogue  and  Constitution  for  1840,*'  p.  10. 


368  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

was  by  restricting  its  correctness  to  what  were  regarded 
the  ''fundamental"  doctrines,  and  finding  the  errors  on 
points  that  were  deemed  non-fundamental.  On  this  sub- 
ject there  was  violent  controversy  for  many  years. 

It  is  affirmed,  on  the  one.hand,  with  undoubted  correct- 
ness, that  this  affirmation  placed  the  seminary  and  the 
General  Synod  upon  higher  confessional  ground  than  had 
been  occupied  by  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  since 
its  departure,  in  1792,  from  its  earliest  constitution.  It 
was  a  pledge  to  a  distinctively  Lutheran  position.  Such 
an  affirmation  could  never  have  been  enforced  in  the  Pro- 
posed Lutheran-Reformed  seminary  which  the  ministerium 
had  had  in  mind.  It  could  not  have  been  exacted  of 
those  who  believed  the  confession  to  be  in  error  on  those 
points  which  divide  the  Lutherans  from  the  Reformed. 
In  justice,  however,  to  those  who  might  seem  to  have  been 
acting  a  false  part  in  making  this  affirmation  while  they 
believed  the  confession  to  contain  errors,  it  must  be  stated, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  the  full  force  of  the  declaration 
was  not  so  clearly  apparent  in  a  period  directly  following 
one  when,  as  we  have  seen,  the  greatest  Hving  theologian 
of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America  could  distinguish  no 
difference  between  the  Augsburg-  Confession  and  the 
formularies  of  the  Church  of  England.  Since  these  sub- 
jects have  been  dealt  with  more  critically,  they  impose 
new  responsibilities. 

The  influence  of  Hartwick  Seminary,  under  Drs.  Ha- 
zelius  and  Miller,  was  of  an  irenic  character,  and  was  not 
widely  felt.  However  warm  his  sympathy  for  the  Lutheran 
Church,  the  writings  of  the  former,  and  especially  his  "  His- 
tory of  the  Christian  Church,"  show  the  impress  of  his 
Moravian  training,  his  careful  avoidance  of  precise  doc- 
trinal distinctions,  and  tendencies  which,  in  the  lives  of  more 
aggressive  pupils,  could   readily  become  far  more  serious 


''AMERICAN  LUTHERANISM:'  369 

than  in  one  so  universally  beloved  for  his  mildness  and 
gentleness  of  character.  At  Lexington,  S.  C,  Dr.  Haze- 
lius  is  not  known  to  have  varied  from  what  he  was  at 
Hartwick.  Nor,  under  his  successor,  Dr.  L.  Eichelberger, 
was  the  Seminary  of  the  South  involved  in  any  controversy. 

Dr.  Benjamin  Kurtz,  the  grandson  of  Rev.  J.  Nicholas 
Kurtz,  had  not  enjoyed  a  college  education,  but  his  supe- 
rior mental  gifts  and  pulpit  power  soon  gave  him  eminence. 
After  some  years  in  the  pastorate,  he  had  gone  to  Ger- 
many to  secure  contributions  for  the  Gettysburg  Seminary, 
and,  after  exciting  great  interest  and  enlisting  the  favor 
of  even  the  King  of  Prussia  (before  whom  he  preached),  the 
King  of  Wiirtemberg,  etc.,  he  had  become  editor  of  ''  The 
Lutheran  Observer"  in  1833.  This  he  edited  with  much 
vigor  until  1858.  -  He  was  the  advocate  of  '*  New  Meas- 
ures," revival  meetings,  etc.,  and  the  severe  antagonist  of 
confessional  Lutheranism  and  liturgical  worship  in  any 
shape  or  form,  and  the  powerful  auxiliary  of  the  professor 
at  Gettysburg,  although  the  prudence  of  the  latter  was 
doubtless  frequently  offended  by  the  ardor  and  violence 
of  his  colleague. 

At  Wittenberg  Theological  Seminary,  Springfield,  O., 
established  1845,  Dr.  Samuel  Sprecher,  who  became  pro- 
fessor in  1849,  was  in  general  sympathy  with  the  position 
of  his  teacher.  Dr.  Schmucker,  and  proved  a  most  eloquent 
advocate  of  this  modified  or  "American  Lutheranism." 
In  later  years  he  has  frankly  stated  the  manner  in  which 
he  has  reached  another  conclusion,  and  his  readiness  to 
accept  the  position  of  the  Halle  theologians.^ 

With  growing  classes  of  students  instructed  in  this  new 
theology,   the  conservatives  in  the  General   Synod  were 


'Lutheran  Evangelist,"  May  i,  1891.      Also  January  15,  1892:   "  I  can 
say,  as  I  could  not  formerly,  that,  like  Spener,  I  can  for  myself  accept 
the  symbols  of  the  church  without  reserve." 


1 
now 


370  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

comparatively  helpless,  until  the  establishment  of  the 
"Evangelical  Review"  at  Gettysburg,  in  1849,  as  their 
organ,  in  which,  under  the  editorship,  first  of  Dr.  W.  M. 
Reynolds  and  then  of  Dr.  C.  P.  Krauth,  Sr.,  it  became 
soon  manifest  that  the  conservative  element  was  strong 
and  was  constantly  gaining. 

The  congregations  were  rapidly  passing  from  German 
to  English.  A  ministry  was  arising  entirely  cut  off  from 
the  literature  in  which  the  faith  of  their  fathers  was  main- 
tained and  defended.  All  their  authorities,  their  com- 
mentaries, their  aids  in  the  study  of  theology,  were  those 
of  other  churches.  They  knew  little  of  Lutheran  theology 
except  as  they  learned  it  from  the  Calvinistic  or  American 
writers.  The  religious  excitements  which  periodically 
pervaded  the  country — returning  waves  of  the  influences 
originating  at  Halle,  but,  without  the  restraints  of  a  con- 
fessional balance,  running  into  extremes — soon  found  in 
them  earnest  advocates ;  and  with  them  entered  a  differ- 
ent spirit  from  that  of  the  Lutheran  Church. 

More  harmful  than  any  positively  erroneous  teaching 
propounded  from  the  professor's  chair  or  issued  from  the 
press,  was  the  lack  of  cultivation  of  any  decided  form  of 
church  life.  The  seminary  course  was  very  brief,  and  the 
teaching  scarcely  rose  above,  if  it  equaled,  the  standard 
of  the  better  catechetical  instruction.  There  was  even  a 
tendency  to  depreciate  sacred  learning,  as  relatively  unim- 
portant, and  to  throw  all  stress  upon  devotional  exercises. 
The  teaching  became  hortatory  instead  of  doctrinal,  and 
no  longer  covered  the  full  extent  of  revelation.  There 
was  more  success  in  home  missionary  work  than  in  build- 
ing up  established  congregations  and  instructing  experi- 
enced Christians.  Young  pastors  uninstructed  in  the 
modes  adopted  by  the  Lutheran  Church,  and  sincerely 
earnest  in  the  endeavor  to  be  faithful,  readily  adopted  the 


PARALYSIS   OF   CHURCH  LIFE.  37 1 

methods  of  other  churches.  The  old  ways  of  the  fathers 
were  looked  upon  with  suspicion.  Where  this  was 
avoided,  in  the  uncertainty  and  wish  to  compromise,  the 
most  deplorable  inactivity  and  stagnation  resulted.  The 
peril  of  compromises  on  church  principles  lies  in  the  paraly- 
sis of  church  life,  by  the  endeavor  of  antagonistic  parties 
to  forbear  doing  aught  that  might  offend  those  with 
whom  they  differ,  and  thus  doing  nothing.  Where  in- 
tense conviction  enters,  it  bursts  the  shackles  of  compro- 
mises, and  is  fearless  in  adopting  what  it  regards  the  most 
efficient  measures  to  discharge  its  full  duty.  A  Lutheran 
Church  life  can  never  be  nourished  except  in  accordance 
with  the  principles  of  that  church.  Methodism,  Presby- 
terianism,  or  Anglicanism  within  the  Lutheran  Church 
soon  runs  its  course.  The  Lutherans  of  America,  who 
imagined  that  the  salvation  of  their  church  was  dependent 
upon  its  adoption  of  the  peculiarities  of  its  neighbors,  were 
only  temporarily  misled.  They  were  yet  to  awaken  to 
the  realization  of  the  rich  provision  their  church  contained 
for  the  full  development  of  all  their  spiritual  capacities. 
The  more  they  realized  this,  the  more  could  they  appre- 
ciate conceded  excellences  in  other  forms  of  Christianity 
when  exercised  within  their  own  peculiar  spheres.  But 
however  sure  it  is  that  the  church  ultimately  regains  its 
lost  vantage-ground,  the  lamentable  results  of  the  losses 
suffered  meanwhile  by  inaction  remain.  Dr.  Hazelius,  e.g., 
deplored  greatly  the  widespread  abandonment  of  family 
worship,  as  one  of  the  consequences  of  the  teaching  that 
all  prayers  except  those  made  extemporaneously  are  form- 
alism. The  layman  who  found  it  difficult  to  offer  a  free 
prayer  banished  the  prayer-book  from  his  altar,  as  though 
by  its  use  he  would  do  God  dishonor;  and  the  next  step 
was  that  prayers  in  the  household  entirely  ceased. 

The  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  was  protected,  not  by 


372  THE   LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxi. 

a  clearer  confessional  position,  but  partly  by  the  German 
language  and  partly  by  the  resources  which  were  open  to 
its  pastors  by  their  access  to  German  Lutheran  literature. 
There  were  also  a  number  of  learned  and  influential  mem- 
bers belonging  to  the  synod,  of  a  more  decided  and  con- 
servative tendency,  even  though  some  of  them  had  not 
fully  realized  the  necessity  of  a  much  higher  confessional 
obligation  than  had  hitherto  been  imposed.  All  was  con- 
fusion ;  and  it  is  idle,  as  is  sometimes  attempted,  to  discuss 
the  question  as  to  the  degree  of  error  of  either  body.  The 
question  really  to  be  met  is,  as  to  the  readiness  to  remedy 
the  evil  which  originated  from  defects  existing  in  the  Min- 
isterium  of  Pennsylvania  before  it  separated  into  different 
synods,  and  which  had  been  perpetuated  both  in  the  orig- 
inal synod  and  in  all  her  children.  The  question,  too, 
was  not  one  pertaining  directly  to  efficiency  in  the  more 
ordinary  duties  of  the  pastorate,  but  especially  with  re- 
spect to  the  prerequisites  for  success  in  the  future  devel- 
opment of  the  entire  church,  and  its  relation  to  the  various 
new  issues  which,  with  that  development,  she  was  called 
upon  to  meet.  In  other  words,  how  was  the  position  of 
the  founders  of  the  church  in  America  to  be  regained? 
Before  this  period  closes  we  will  recur  to  the  later  phases 
of  this  burning  question. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

A      MISSIONARY      ERA. 

An  indirect  result  of  the  establishment  of  the  Theolog- 
ical Seminary  at  Gettysburg  was  the  origin  of  the  first 
Lutheran  college,  in  1832.  When  the  seminary  was 
started  a  large  number  of  the  students  were  found  defi- 
cient in  preparation.  Accordingly,  one  of  the  first  class, 
David  Jacobs,  a  graduate  of  Jeflferson  College,  Canons- 
burg,  Pa.,  was  asked  to  open  a  gymnasium  or  academy. 
This  he  did  with  two  pupils,  June  25,  1827.  From  this 
beginning  came  Pennsylvania  College.  But  before  the 
teacher  who  had  begun  the  work  could  participate  in  the 
opening  of  the  college,  he  had  fallen  in  November,  1830, 
at  the  age  of  twenty- five,  a  sacrifice  to  his  zeal  and  devo- 
tion to  the  cause.  His  brother,  Michael  Jacobs,  D.D.,  was 
connected  with  the  gymnasium  and  college  from  1829  until 
187 1.  Rev.  H.  L.  Baugher,  D.D.,  a  graduate  of  Dickin- 
son, succeeded  David  Jacobs.  The  first  president  was 
Charles  Philip  Krauth,  D.D,,  from  1834  to  1850,  and  the 
second.  Dr.  Baugher,  from  1850  to  1867.  The  college 
drew  its  students  from  all  over  the  country,  from  Canada 
to  South  Carolina  and  Texas.  It  not  only  has  educated 
its  thousands,  but  has  been  the  parent  of  similar  institu- 
tions, whose  presidents  and  professors  received  their  edu- 
cation in  its  halls.  Besides  most  powerfully  influencing 
the  literary  culture  of  the  anglicized  portion  of  the  Lu- 
theran Church,  it  has  educated  prominent  clergymen 
of  other  denominatioris,   and  has  able   representatives   in 

373 


374  ^-^^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxii. 

public  life.  With  the  professors  mentioned,  the  names  of 
Drs.  W.  M.  Reynolds,  M.  L.  Stoever,  and  F.  A.  Muhlen- 
berg should  be  associated  as  most  important  during  this 
period.  Through  their  efforts  an  English  Lutheran  liter- 
ature began  to  be  issued. 

Provision  for  beneficiary  education  followed.  Long  be- 
fore this,  the  German  Society  of  Philadelphia  had  aided 
some  candidates  for  the  Lutheran  ministry.  A  fund  for 
the  education  of  poor  students  grew  into  a  Parent  Edu- 
cation Society,  established  in  1837,  which  held  its  meet- 
ings during  the  sessions  of  the  General  Synod,  and  showed 
continually  increasing  efficiency.  Before  this,  in  1830,  a 
Sunday-school  Union  had  been  formed,  of  which  Rev.  C. 
F.  Heyer  was  the  agent,  who,  during  the  first  year,  trav- 
eled nearly  five  thousand  miles,  preached  in  three  hundred 
places,  and  established  a  large  number  of  Sunday-schools. 
From  twelve  to  fifteen  thousand  Sunday-school  books  and 
tracts  had  been  sold  and  distributed. 

A  home  missionary  society  in  connection  with  the  Gen- 
eral Synod  had  been  established  before  1837.  In  that 
year,  Rev.  C.  F.  Heyer,  one  of  its  six  missionaries  who 
had  been  sent  to  explore  the  entire  Mississippi  Valley  and 
to  ascertain  all  German  settlements,  reported  that  he  had 
traveled  thousands  of  miles,  and  found  places  for  at  least 
fifty  missionaries.  Meanwhile  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania was  not  inactive.  A  similar  society  was  connected 
with  it,  and  in  1836  Rev.  Ezra  Keller  reported  extensive 
explorations  through  the  present  West  Virginia  and  Ohio, 
into  Kentucky,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  laying  the  foundation 
for  the  present  churches  of  those  regions,  traveling  three 
thousand  miles,  and  preaching  eighty  times.  Between  the 
mission  work  of  the  two  bodies  there  was  no  conflict,  or 
even  rivalry. 

The  foreign  mission  work  began  on  a  very  comprehensive 


RHENIUS   OF  PALAMCOTTA.  375 

plan.  A  constitution  was  adopted  and  officers  elected,  in 
1837,  for  a  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Evangelical 
German  Churches  in  the  United  States.  The  Ministe- 
rium  of  Pennsylvania  was  represented  by  delegates,  among 
whom  was  Rev.  Dr.  C.  W.  Schaeffer.  Representatives  of 
the  Reformed  and  Moravians  were  among  the  officers 
chosen.  Cooperation  with  the  American  Board  of  Com- 
missioners for  Foreign  Missions  was  declared  in  the  con- 
stitution to  be  one  of  its  objects.  The  efforts  to  secure 
the  cooperation  of  the  other  German  churches  failed,  ex- 
cept some  collections  in  the  Reformed  Churches.  Auxil- 
iary societies  were  formed  in  the  various  synods.  The 
mission  of  Rev.  Dr.  Rhenius  at  Palamcotta,  India,  received 
whatever  contributions  were  gathered  during  the  first 
years. 

It  had  been  the  policy  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society 
of  England,  organized  in  1799,  and  representing  what  were 
afterward  known  as  Low  Churchmen,  for  many  years  to  em- 
ploy German  missionaries  educated  at  Basle  or  Berlin,  per- 
fectly content  with  their  non-episcopal  ordination.  C.  L.  E. 
Rhenius  (born  1 790)  had  been  one  of  the  most  successful  of 
their  missionaries,  first  at  Madras,  where  he  translated  the 
Bible  into  Tamil,  and  afterward  in  the  Tinnevelly  dis- 
trict, at  the  extreme  south  of  the  western  coast  of  India. 
Establishing  Christian  villages  into  which  he  gathered  his 
native  converts,  he  had  under  his  care  over  eight  thousand 
souls  of  native  Christians.  Founding  a  seminary  and  pre- 
paring native  pastors,  in  1832  an  irreconcilable  difficulty 
occurred  in  connection  with  their  ordination.  Dr.  Rhenius 
insisting  upon  a  Lutheran  ordination  as  sufficient,  while 
the  society  for  which  he  had  labored,  and  which  continued 
in  all  other  respects  to  yield  to  his  judgment,  decided  that 
they  must  be  ordained  by  a  bishop  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land.    The  result  was  the  dismissal  of  Dr.  Rhenius,  whose 


376  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxii. 

hold,  however,  upon  the  natives  was  so  great  that,  in  com- 
pliance with  their  entreaties,  he  returned  to  the  field.  He 
made  his  appeal  to  the  Lutheran  churches  throughout 
the  world  to  sustain  him.  The  German  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society,  representing  almost  exclusively  the  General 
Synod,  pledged  two  semi-annual  appropriations  of  one 
thousand  dollars  each  for  his  support.  The  Society  of  the 
South  Carolina  Synod  sent  him  a  press.  The  Society  of 
the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  appropriated  and  sent 
five  hundred  dollars.  But  before  the  reHef  became  very 
effectual,  the  veteran  missionary  had  departed  this  life, 
leaving  a  memory  prized  alike  by  his  brethren,  who  ap- 
preciated his  devotion  to  his  Lutheran  principles,  and  by 
his  former  associates,  who  regretted  them  as  marking  a 
strange  infatuation  in  the  course  of  an  otherwise  most 
excellent  man.  After  his  death  his  associates  complied 
with  the  requirements  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society. 
The  work  of  Rhenius  had  enlisted  much  attention  both 
in  this  country  and  in  Germany,  even  before  his  separa- 
tion from  his  English  connections.  The  East  India  "  Re- 
ports," published  regularly  at  Halle,  from  the  sending  out 
of  the  earlier  missionaries  from  that  institution,  contain 
extensive  selections  from  his  published  reports.  In  the 
chapter  concerning  the  Salzburgers  we  have  learned -how 
the  Halle  pastors  in  America  prized  these  journals  and 
read  them  to  their  congregations  and  commented  upon 
them.  The  copies  sent  to  old  Zion's  Church,  Philadelphia, 
some  of  them,  with  manuscript  papers  lying  beneath  their 
leaves  over  a  century  old,  are  now  at  Mount  Airy.  They 
extend  from  Ziegenbalg  to  Rhenius.  Father  Heyer,  the 
pioneer  foreign  missionary  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in 
America,  was  a  child  of  Zion's  Church,  and  the  older  re- 
ports or  the  later  ones,  as  they  regularly  appeared,  could 
not  have  escaped  him,  during  his  youth  as  a  Sunday-school 


CHARLES  FREDERICK  HEYER.  377 

teacher  and  a  member  of  the  Mosheim  Society,  and  his 
subsequent  years  as  a  theological  student  of  the  pastors 
of  the  congregation.  Schwartz,  the  greatest  of  Lutheran 
missionaries  in  India,  had  left  Halle  only  nine  years  before 
Helmuth,  Heyer's  preceptor,  entered.  Whether  the  zeal 
of  Heyer  as  a  home  missionary  was  kept  burning  by  the 
latest  reports  from  Rhenius,  as  published  in  the  same 
journals  years  after  he  had  been  laboring  in  what  was 
then  the  West,  we  do  not  know.  But  his  clear  acquaint- 
ance with  the  situation  and  prompt  determination  indicate 
that  it  was  strongly  probable. 

In  1 84 1  he  was  appointed  by  the  Mission  Society  of 
the  General  Synod  missionary  to  India;  but  when  the 
arrangement  was  made  that  he  should  go  under  the  gen- 
eral supervision  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions,  he  declined,  and  offered  his  services 
to  the  Missionary  Society  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania in  a  letter  beginning : 

Baltimore,  June  3,  1841. 
Dear  Brother  :  I  should  prefer  going  into  the  heathen  world  under  the 
direction  of  an  Evangelical  Lutheran  Missionary  Society,  rather  than  be  de- 
pendent upon  other  Christian  denominations  ;  therefore,  I  take  the  lil:)erty 
of  addressing  myself  to  your  missionary  society.  Should  the  brethren  feel 
disposed  to  send  me  as  a  missionary  among  the  heathens,  then  the  following 
conditions  are  to  be  borne  in  mind. 

The  committee  to  which  this  letter  was  referred,  with 
the  dilatoriness  and  timidity  that  so  often  have  character- 
ized the  mother-synod,  reported  their  pleasure  in  perceiv- 
ing **  how  much  Brother  Heyer  is  devoted  to  the  cause  of 
Christ,"  but  regretted  that  **  we  have  not  sufficient  means 
at  hand  to  form  and  maintain  a  heathen  mission"!  But 
Rev.  Dr.  C.  F.  Demme  was  equal  to  the  occasion,  and, 
seconded  by  Rev.  Dr.  J.  C.  Baker  (under  whose  preaching, 
thirty  years  before,  Heyer  had  decided  to  enter  the  minis- 
try), he  silenced  all  opposition,  and  raised  the  synod  to  a 


378  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxii. 

higher  standard  by  moving  the  resolutions,  which  were 
unanimously  carried,  that  began  American  Lutheran  for- 
eign missions  in  India. 

These  resolutions  of  June  7,  1841,  were: 

Resolved,  That,  in  reliance  on  divine  Providence,  we  commence  a  heathen 
mission. 

Resolved,  That  we  receive  Brother  Heyer  as  missionary  in  our  service ; 
however,  his  offer  to  invest  one  thousand  dollars  of  his  own  property,  the 
interest  of  which  to  aid  in  the  support  of  the  mission  so  long  as  he  is  con- 
nected with  it,  be  not  accepted. 

Resolved,  That  the  executive  committee  be  solicited  immediately  to  enter 
into  correspondence  with  Brother  Heyer,  in  order  to  carry  the  above  resolu- 
tions into  effect. 

Resolved,  That  we  recommend  to  the  executive  committee  Hindostan  as  a 
missionary  field,  for  their  consideration. 

Resolved,  That  the  treasurer,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Becker,  be  requested  to  address 
a  circular  to  the  different  missionary  societies  of  our  church,  informing  them 
of  the  above  resolutions,  and  invite  them  to  cooperate  with  us. 

Rev.  Charles  Frederick  Heyer  was  no  longer  a  young 
man,  and  to  many  it  seemed  a  mistake  to  send  one  of  his 
years  into  an  untried  field,  where  he  would  have  to  wrestle 
with  the  difficulties  of  a  new  language,  and  be  exposed 
to  severe  physical  hardships.  But  his  nearly  a  quarter  of 
a  century's  experience  as  a  traveling  home  missionary 
had  peculiarly  fitted  him  for  the  work ;  and  to  the  end  of 
life,  all  the  energy  and  enthusiasm  of  youth  carried  him 
forward  in  incessant  labor  for  the  cause  of  his  Master. 
Born  in  Helmstadt,  Germany,  July  10,  1793,  he  came  to 
America  in  1807,  studied  theology  under  his  pastors,  Drs. 
Helmuth  and  F.  D.  Schaeffer  in  Philadelphia,  and  at 
Gottingen,  was  licen.sed  as  a  candidate  in  181 7,  and  im- 
mediately began  his  labors  as  a  home  missionary,  with 
Meadville,  Pa.,  as  his  center. 

Sunday,  October  3,  1841,  was  a  notable  day  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Lutheran  Church,  when  fourteen  or  fifteen 
pastors  of  the  ministeriums  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York, 


THE    GUNTUR  MI  SSI  OX.  379 

and  the  synods  of  Ohio,  Maryland  and  Virginia,  with  a 
large  audience,  gathered  in  St.  Paul's  (German)  Church, 
Philadelphia,  and,  after  listening  to  a  sermon  from  the 
new  missionary,  on  Jonah  ii.  3,  "Arise,  go  unto  Nineveh," 
etc.,  heard  the  charge  addressed  him  by  Rev.  Dr.  Baker. 
He  sailed  from  Boston,  October  14,  in  company  with 
some  missionaries  of  the  American  Board.  From  the  ship 
he  sent  his  farewell  greetings  to  his  friends  (he  had  left 
his  children  in  America). 

All  ready  to  begin  our  voyage.  I  feel  calm  and  cheerful,  having  taken 
this  step  after  serious  and  prayerful  consideration.  The  smiles  of  friends 
have  cheered  and  the  approbation  of  the  churches  encouraged  me  thus 
far.  But  I  am  well  aware  that,  ere  long,  amidst  a  tribe  of  men  whose  lan- 
guage will  be  strange  to  me,  I  shall  behold  those  smiles  only  in  remem- 
brance, and  hear  the  voice  of  encouragement  only  in  dying  whispers  across 
the  ocean,  and  then  nothing  but  the  grace  of  God,  nothing  but  a  thorough 
conviction  of  being  in  the  path  of  duty,  nothing  but  the  approving  smile  of 
Heaven,  can  keep  me  from  despondency.! 

Beyond  the  fact  that  the  Telugus  in  India  offered  a 
desirable  field  of  labor,  and  the  instructions  that  he  should 
see  if  such  reports  which  came  from  the  American  Board 
were  correct,  he  had  little  to  guide  him.  He  had  ex- 
pected to  be  determined  largely  by  the  instructions  of 
Rhenius,  of  whose  death  he  did  not  hear  until  he  reached 
India.  In  September,  1842,  he  reported  that  he  had 
located  at  Guntur,  a  city  two  hundred  and  thirty  miles 
north  of  Madras,  and  thirty-five  miles  from  the  western 
coast.  He  had  reached  there  July  31,  1842,  and  been 
encouraged  to  locate  by  a  Mr.  Stokes,  an  official  of  the 
English  government.  In  July,  1844,  Rev.  Walter  Gunn 
and  wife,  sent  by  the  Missionary  Society  of  the  Gen- 
eral Synod,  were  welcomed  by  Father  Heyer,  as  reinforce- 
ments in  the  work  he  had  begun.  Before  the  close  of 
1844  seventeen  converts  had  been  baptized  as  the  first- 

1  "  The  Lutheran  Observer,"  October  29,  1841. 


380  THE   LUTHERANS.  [Chai-.  xxii. 

fruits  of  the  mission.  An  arrangement  was  made,  during 
a  visit  of  the  pioneer  missionary  to  America,  in  1846, 
whereby  the  General  Synod  assumed  the  entire  care  of 
the  mission,  while  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  pro- 
vided for  the  support  of  Dr.  Heyer.  In  assuming  this 
work  the  executive  committee  of  the  General  Synod's 
society  pay  a  most  graceful  tribute  to  those  who  had 
made  the  beginning : 

We  feel  constrained  to  pay  a  passing  tribute  to  the  Missionary  Society  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Synod,  for  their  devoted  zeal  and  activity  in  the  missionary 
work.  To  that  society  we  owe  the  successful  establishment  of  the  mission 
at  Guntur.  To  them  belongs  the  proud  distinction  of  having  sent  the  first 
Lutheran  missionary  from  the  United  States.  And  right  and  proper  was  it 
that  the  oldest  Lutheran  synod  in  this  country,  the  mother  of  us  all,  should 
take  the  lead  in  this  noble  enterprise.  It  was  in  "strict  unison  with  the  spirit 
which  characterized  the  founders  of  that  venerable .  body  in  leaving  their 
fatherland  to  establish  a  branch  of  our  Lutheran  Zion  in  the  then  wilderness 
of  America.  It  was  providential,  whether  we  consider  the  man  sent,  those 
who  sent  him,  the  time,  or  the  section  of  country  in  which  he  commenced  his 
labors.  1 

On  his  return  to  India  in  1849  Dr.  Heyer  founded  an- 
other mission  center  in  the  Telugu  country,  in  the  Palnaud. 
In  1850  the  neighboring  Rajahmundry  field,  with  its  two 
missionaries,  Groenning  and  Heise,  was  transferred  to  the 
care  of  the  American  Evangelical  Lutheran  Missionary 
Society  by  the  North  German  Society,  upon  the  condition 
that  it  was  forever  to  remain  a  Lutheran  mission.  In 
1857  Dr.  Heyer  wrote:  *' The  sun  of  my  life  is  sinking, 
the  day  is  waning,  and  the  shades  of  evening  are  rapidly 
approaching,"  and  left  India,  as  he  supposed  forever,  little 
anticipating  that  twelve  years  later  he  would  return  to  re- 
organize a  portion  of  the  field  that  sorely  needed  his  atten- 
tion. The  missionaries  of  the  General  Synod  associated 
with  him,  besides  those  mentioned,  were  Cutter  and  Snyder, 
and,  for  a  brief  season,  Martz.     Gunn  was  an  early  sacrifice 

1  "  Minutes  of  General  Synod  for  1848,"  p.  55. 


HOME  MISSIONS.  38 1 

to  the  work,  having  died  July  5,  185 1,  as  Snyder,  the 
nephew  of  Dr.  G.  B.  Miller  of  Hartwick,  was  a  later  victim 
to  the  climate.  The  immediate  results  of  this  period  were 
small,  compared  with  the  dimensions  that  the  field  has 
since  assumed.  They  had  to  lay  the  foundations  on  which 
a  second  generation  of  missionaries  have  built.  Heyer's 
temperament  would  never  have  allowed  him  to  remain 
long  at  one  post,  or  to  have  been  content  with  the  slow 
and  gradual  work  of  those  who  build.  With  truly  apos- 
tolic spirit,  he  was  ever  pressing  into  territory  where 
Christ  was  not  known,  or  his  worship  neglected,  and 
opening  the  doors  for  others  to  enter.  His  report  to  the 
General  Synod  of  his  exploration  of  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
that  he  had  found  places  for  fifty  preachers,  might  well  be 
applied  to  his  foreign  missionary  work.  It  was  his  calling 
to  find  places  and  prepare  the  way  for  those  who  were 
to  do  the  thorough,  methodical,  and  slow  work,  whereby 
ultimate  success  was  to  be  attained.  When  he  withdrew  in 
1857,  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  then  in  the  General 
Synod,  appointed  no  successor.  Revs.  E.  Unangst,  D.D., 
and  A.  Long  (died  1866)  had  been  sent  to  India  by  the 
General  Synod  in  1857. 

As  might  have  been  anticipated,  the  attention  paid  to 
the  beginning  of  the  foreign  mission  work  prevented  any 
great  extension  of  home  mission  work  during  the  decade 
1840-50.  It  was  not  until  1845  that  the  Home  Missionary 
Society  of  the  General  Synod  was  organized,  and  its  results 
for  a  long  time  were  feeble.  Nor  does  the  Ministerium 
of  Pennsylvania  show  much  life  in  this  direction  until  in 
the  fifties ;  then  we  find  some  aid  given  a  mission  among 
the  North  American  Indians  in  Michigan,  and  a  number 
of  mission-points  in  Canada  and  Wisconsin  sustained  or 
aided,  as  was  the  case  shortly  afterward  in  Minnesota. 
The  synods  that  bear  those  names  are  in  part  the  fruit  of 


382  THE   LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxii. 

that  activity.  The  New  York  Ministerium  had  a  great 
responsibiHty  thrown  upon  it  by  the  enormous  German 
immigration  to  that  State,  and  the  development  of  its  west- 
ern counties,  and  met  it  well,  as  the  mother-churches  of 
Buffalo,  Rochester,  Utica,  Syracuse,  Lyons,  etc.,  founded 
during  those  years,  show.  Its  missionary  boundaries  ex- 
tended to  the  north  into  Canada.  In  New  Jersey  the 
churches  at  Newark  and  Elizabeth  were  founded.  In 
Boston  it  made  an  unsuccessful  effort  to  establish  both 
an  English  and  a  German  church. 

The  Ohio  Synod  was  all  missionary  territory.  With 
such  pioneer  missionaries  as  John  Stauch  and  Paul  Henkel 
were  associated  the  two  Stecks  (J.  M.  and  M.  J.),  father 
and  son,  at  Greensburg,  Pa.,  and  Lancaster,  O.  The 
names  of  Andrew  and  Charles  Henkel,  Manning,  Wagen- 
hals,  Greenwald,  Mechling,  Spielman,  Roof,  soon  appear. 
In  the  years  1837  and  1838,  twenty  pastors  in  this  synod 
served  no  less  than  one  hundred  and  ninety-five  con- 
gregations. A  pastoral  charge  extended  over  several 
counties,  and  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  miles  had  to 
be  traveled  in  filling  the  necessary  appointments  every 
Sunday.  This  was  demanded  by  the  great  scarcity  of 
ministers.  With  all  this  labor,  the  support  was  the  most 
meager.  A  couple  of  hundred  dollars,  without  a  parson- 
age, was  the  frequent  income  of  the  largest  parishes.  A 
log  hut,  with  a  single  unplastered  room,  furnished  with  a 
table  and  a  few  chairs  or  benches,  together  with  a  place  of 
resting  for  the  night,  was  often  the  only  home  to  which 
the  pastor,  wearied  from  his  exhausting  journeys,  returned. 
One  ^  of  those  earnest  men  who  has  survived  to  write  the 
history  of  those  days,  and  upon  whom  we  rely  for  these 
facts,  adds : 

Even  in  1840,  during  my  canvass  as  agent  tlirough  a  portion  of  the  synod- 
ical  territory,  I  enjoyed  the  fraternal  hospitality  of  three  pastors  educated  in 

1  Rev.  C.  Spielman,  in  his  "  History." 


JV£IV  SYNODS.  383 

Germany,  who,  with  their  families,  lived  in  such  log  huts.  Nevertheless 
they  were  entirely  contented  and  satisfied  in  them ;  a  proof  that  great  earthly 
possessions  and  outward  display  are  not  necessary  for  the  true  welfare  of 
men.  Children  of  God,  united  by  true  faith  to  their  Lord,  and  having  his 
peace  in  their  hearts,  live  more  happily  in  their  poor  and  plain  huts  than  the 
children  of  this  world  in  their  transitory  glory  and  earthly  magnificence,  l 

Laboring  with  their  own  hands  during  the  week,  even 
weaving  the  cloth  from  which  their  garments  were  made, 
and  manufacturing  their  sugar  and  syrup  from  the  maple 
forests  which  surrounded  them,  any  progress  in  scholarly 
attainments  could  not  have  been  expected.  Their  ser- 
mons doubtless  showed  the  effects  of  their  distractions, 
and  their  congregations,  like- many  in  Pennsylvania,  were 
not  thoroughly  developed.  But  where  there  was  the 
willingness  to  make  these  sacrifices,  the  response  to  the 
appeals  to  build  the  institutions  at  Columbus  was  more 
prompt  than  among  those  who  were  strangers  to  such  self- 
denial. 

The  growing  demands  for  more  aggressive  home  mis- 
sionary work  broke  through  synodical  boundaries.  The 
older  synods,  not  ready  to  respond  promptly  to  the  call 
of  the  hour  and  to  make  sufficient  provision  to  engage 
the  zeal  of  their  younger  members,  were  left  behind,  while 
many  of  their  more  active  young  men  organized  new 
synods.  This  was  rendered  possible  by  the  increasing 
number  of  young  ministers,  furnished  by  the  institutions 
at  Hartwick  and  Gettysburg,  who  were  able  to  preach 
with  acceptance  in  the  English  language  and  to  adapt 
themselves  to  the  changing  circumstances  of  American  life. 
That  there  was  much  doctrinal  indefiniteness,  and  the 
lack  of  a  clear  conception  of  the  mission  and  work  of  the 
Lutheran  Church,  and  a  frequent  desire  to  introduce 
methods  alien  to  its  spirit,  must  be  freely  conceded ;  and  in 
their  zeal  there  were  occasional  attacks  upon  what  every 

1  I  did.,  p.   139. 


384  ^^^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxir. 

true  and  intelligent  Lutheran  should  hold  dear  as  his  own 
life,  as  the  columns  of  the  sole  church  paper  published 
within  the  General  Synod  at  that  time  will  clearly  show. 
But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  more  conservative  portion 
of  the  church  had  shown  more  of  that  life  which  began  to 
characterize  it  toward  the  close  of  this  period,  many  of  the 
conflicts  would  have  been  avoided.  When  the  pastoral 
zeal  of  Falckner  and  Boltzius  and  the  missionary  zeal  of 
Muhlenberg  and  Heyer  were  absent  from  the  great  body 
of  those  who  professed  to  hold  the  same  faith,  or  where 
this  zeal  could  not  appreciate  the  growing  necessities  of 
the  change  of  language  and  nationality,  methods  which 
sometimes  might  lie  open  to  the  charge  of  being  revolu- 
tionary might  be  anticipated.  Even  the  so-called  "  new 
measures "  gained  an  influence  among  Lutherans  only 
where  what  might  be  called  **  old  measures  "  had  not  been 
energetically  administered.  But  where  such  breaks  had 
been  once  made,  the  doors  were  open  to  all  sorts  of  indi- 
vidualism, that  could  be  justified  by  no  apology,  and  that 
delighted  in  proclaiming  their  radicalism,  until  the  new  order 
was  driven  more  and  more  back  into  the  channels  of  the 
old  faith  and  life  of  the  church.  We  may  well  cover  with 
the  mantle  of  charity  most  of  the  doctrinal  discussions  and 
synodical  deliverances  of  those  days.  In  order  to  under- 
stand them  much  must  be  read  between  the  lines.  No- 
where is  the  old  adage  more  applicable :  Qitmn  duo  idem 
diacnt,  non  est  idem. 

In  New  York  the  break  began  in  183 1,  by  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Hartwick  Synod,  which  entered  the  General 
Synod  at  its  next  convention.  But  in  1837  the  Hartwick 
Synod  was  not  advanced  enough  for  a  few  of  its  members, 
who  founded  the  Franckean  Synod,  which  pressed  ''  new 
measures  "  to  the  extreme,  laid  little  stress  on  an  educated 
ministry,  and  in  its  "  Declaration  of  Faith,"  abandoning 


WITTENBERG   COLLEGE.  385 

the  Augsburg  Confession,  taught,  according  to  the  deci- 
sion of  a  vice-chancellor  of  the  State  of  New  York,  an 
entirely  different  doctrine  on  '*  three  essential  particulars." 
This  may  be  noted  as  the  perpetuation  of  the  doctrinal 
tendency  that  had  been  strong  in  the  New  York  Minis- 
terium,  and  previously  found  expression  in  Dr.  Quitman's 
Catechism.  It  can  in  no  way  be  regarded  as  having  any- 
thing whatever  to  do  with  influences  that  had  entered  from 
either  Hartwick  or  Gettysburg.  It  had  been  imported 
from  Gottingen,  and  had  been  taught  in  the  State  of  New 
York  long  before  a  General  Synod  was  thought  of.  The 
decision  of  Vice-Chancellor  Sandford  says  of  the  Franck- 
ean  Declaration : 

I.  It  does  not  maintain  and  declare  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  or  that  the 
three  Persons  constituting  the  Godhead  are  equal  in  power  and  glory ;  or 
even  that  there  are  three  Persons  constituting  the  Deity.  2.  It  does  not 
declare  or  admit  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,  or  his  equality  with  God  the 
Father.  3.  It  does  not  teach  or  declare  that  man  will  be  condemned  to 
punishment  in  a  future  state,  because  of  original  or  inherited  sin,  unless  it 
be  repented  of ;  or  that  it  condemneth  all  who  are  not  born  again  of  water 
and  the  Holy  Ghost.  1 

The  same  process  broke  off  several  small  synods  from 
the  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio,  the  first  in  1840,  which  soon 
found  their  way  into  the  General  Synod,  and  grew  rapidly 
after  they  had  a  literary  and  theological  center  in  Witten- 
berg College  and  Seminary,  Springfield,  O.,  founded  in 
1845,  aricl  presided  over  successively  by  Drs.  Ezra  Keller 
and  S.  Sprecher.  These  institutions  were,  during  this 
period,  the  most  advanced  in  their  advocacy  and  develop- 

1  Sandford's  "Chancery  Reports,"  vol.  i.  ;  also  in  separate  pamphlet: 
"  State  of  New  York  in  Chancery.  Philip  Knisken  and  others  v.  Philip 
Weeting,  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Churches  of  St.  John's  at  Durlach  and 
St.  Peter's  at  New  Rhinebeck  and  Sharon  and  others.  Opinion  of  the  Hon. 
Lewis  H.  Sandford,  Assistant  Vice-Chancellor,  July  17,  1844,"  etc.,  etc. 
New  York,  printed  by  William  Osborn,  88  William  Street,  1845,  pp.  72. 


386  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxii. 

ment  of  the  so-called  American  Lutheranism,  since  there 
were  strong  influences  at  Gettysburg  modifying  and  coun- 
teracting the  teaching  of  its  most  prominent  theologian. 

In  1842  ten  pastors,  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  W.  M. 
Reynolds,  then  a  professor  in  Pennsylvania  College,  Get- 
tysburg, left  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  and  formed 
the  East  Pennsylvania  Synod,  covering  precisely  the  same 
territory. 

In  1845  a  number  of  pastors  in  Pennsylvania,  west  of 
the  Alleghany  Mountains,  belonging  to  several  synods, 
being  on  territory  claimed  both  by  the  synods  of  Ohio  and 
of  West  Pennsylvania,  in  order  to  insure  harmonious 
cooperation  formed  the  Pittsburg  Synod,  which,  on  ter- 
ritory settled  mostly  by  the  Scotch- Irish,  carried  on  with 
great  success  and  spirit  numerous  missions,  and  extended 
its  missionary  activity  as  far  west  as  the  Mississippi 
Valley.  It  acted  upon  the  principle  that  wherever  there 
were  those  uncared  for  the  synod  had  the  right  to  enter, 
when  the  proper  call  came.  It  was  especially  active  in 
Canada,  and  even  as  far  south  as  Texas.  The  synod  was 
composed  largely  of  young  men,  and  its  missionary  oper- 
ations were  guided  chiefly  by  the  unwearied  activity  of 
Dr.  W.  A.  Passavant,  whose  small  journal  "  The  Mission- 
ary "  for  a  number  of  years  enlisted  and  maintained  great 
interest  in  these  undertakings.  The  great  extension  of  the 
missionary  operations  of  the  synod  required  the  most  thor- 
ough organization  of  its  resources.  A  missionary  president 
had  the  immediate  care  of  the  missions.  The  system  of 
synodical  apportionments,  now  widely  used,  was  first  in- 
troduced by  the  Pittsburg  Synod.  Within  this  synod  Dr. 
Passavant,  with  the  cooperation  of  Revs.  G.  Bassler  and  H. 
Reck  and  others,  had  laid  the  foundations  for  institutions 
of  mercy  within  the  Lutheran  Church  by  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Orphans'  Home,  first  at  Pittsburg,  afterward 


THE   PITTSBURG   DEACONESSES.  387 

remov^ed  to  Zelienople  and  Rochester,  Pa.,  an  infirmary  at 
Pittsburg,  and  a  Deaconesses'  Institute  at  the- same  place. 
These  institutions  were  only  the  beginning  of  similar  ones 
with  which  he  was  to  be  more  or  less  directly  connected  in 
the  succeeding  period,  at  Boston,  Mass.,  Mount  Vernon, 
N.  Y.,  Jacksonville  and  Chicago,  111.,  and  Milwaukee,  Wis. 
The  deaconesses  for  his  institute  came  from  Kaiserswerth 
in  1849,  and  were  accompanied  by  Pastor  Fliedner.  This 
institution  soon  found  one  to  emulate  it  in  that  projected 
by  Dr.  W.  A.  Muhlenberg  in  New  York  in  1845,  but  not 
formally  organized  until  1852.  Both  founders  incurred 
much  distrust  and  suspicion  of  a  secret  inclination  toward 
Romanism  by  the  revival  of  this  ancient  institution  of  the 
Christian  Church,  which  has  now  its  advocates  in  almost 
all  the  Protestant  denominations.  The  church  was  not 
ready  for  the  work  when  introduced  by  Dr.  Passavant ; 
but  the  few  deaconesses  of  his  institute  did  most  efficient 
service,  especially  in  cholera  epidemics,  during  the  Civil 
War,  and  in  starting  and  administering  the  numerous  in- 
stitutions which  he  was  called  to  undertake. 

The  Pittsburg  Synod,  as  the  result  of  a  missionary 
tour  to  Canada  in  1849,  by  the  Rev.  G.  Bassler,  had 
gathered  the  scattered  congregations  into  a  conference 
of  that  synod  in  1853,  which  in  1861  became  a  separate 
synod.  Prior  to  this  the  long  neglected  people  had  almost 
despaired  of  relief.  No  better  evidence  of  their  extremity 
and  their  earnestness  could  be  afforded  than  the  journey 
of  the  layman,  Adam  Keffer,  from  Vaughn  to  the  meeting 
of  the  Pittsburg  Synod,  to  implore  its  aid  in  securing  a 
pastor.  A  large  portion  of  the  five  hundred  miles  he 
traveled  on  foot. 

Before  considering  new  elements  that  enter  here  into 
the  history  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America  and  had 
much  to  do  with  what  transpired  during  the  later  years  of 


388  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxii. 

this  period,  we  take  a  brief  survey  of  the  more  prominent 
men  and  the  Hterature  that  appear  up  to  this  time. 

The  mother-church  in  Philadelphia  had  as  its  first  pas- 
tor, from  the  withdrawal  of  Dr.  Helmiuth  in  1820  until 
1834,  Dr.  F.  D.  Schaeffer  (died  1836),  for  a  number  of 
years  senior  of  the  ministerium.  The  venerable  Dr.  J.  D. 
Kurtz,  son  of  Rev.  J.  Nicholas  Kurtz,  pastor  until  1833 
in  Baltimore,  died  in  1856,  in  his  ninety-third  year,  par- 
ticipating in  occasional  ministerial  work  until  three  years 
previously.  Dr.  J.  G.  Lochman  passed  away  at  Harris- 
burg  while  the  bells  were  tolling  for  the  deaths  of  Adams 
and  Jefferson,  in  1826,  having  reached  only  the  prime  of 
his  ministerial  career.  Dr.  J.  G.  Schmucker,  active  in  so 
many  of  the  enterprises  of  his  day,  died  at  an  advanced 
age,  in  1854. 

Dr.  C.  F.  Demme  (i  795-1863),  the  son  of  an  eminent 
general-superintendent  of  Altenburg,  first  the  assistant  and 
afterward  the  successor  of  his  father-in-law,  Dr.  Schaeffer, 
at  Philadelphia,  was  one  of  the  most  eloquent  preachers 
and  distinguished  scholars  in  the  Lutheran  Church  of  this 
country,  and,  during  his  prime,  the  most  influential  mem- 
ber of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania.  The  official 
publications  of  the  ministerium  during  his  membership, 
and  particularly  the  liturgy  of  1842  and  the  German 
hymn-book  of  1849,  were  prepared  chiefly  under  his 
editorship.  He  was  the  theological  preceptor  of  a  num- 
ber of  candidates  for  the  ministry. 

Of  the  pastors  of  Trinity  Church,  Reading,  Dr.  H.  A. 
Muhlenberg  became  member  of  Congress,  minister  of  the 
United  States  to  Austria,  and  died  in  1844,  while  the 
democratic  candidate  for  the  governorship  of  Pennsylvania. 
Dr.  Jacob  Miller  (i  788-1850),  his  successor,  was  noted  for 
the  strictness  of  his  adherence  to  the  Lutheran  faith, 
among  many  who  were  far  less  rigid.      Dr.  J.  W.  Richards 


PROMINENT  MINISTERS.  389 

(1803-51),  a  grandson  of  Muhlenberg,  was  a  president  of 
the  ministerium,  and  contributed  much  toward  exciting 
interest  in  its  earlier  history.  Dr.  J.  C.  Baker,  of  Lancas- 
ter, was  an  earnest  pastor,  and  a  man  of  mild  disposition, 
warm  sympathies,  and  wide  outlook.  Rev.  B.  Keller  was 
an  indefatigable  agent,  who  has  his  monument  in  the  edu- 
cation work  and  Publication  House,  now  of  the  General 
Synod,  and  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Philadelphia 
Seminary.  Rev.  William  Beates,  a  pupil  of  Helmuth,  was 
senior  of  the  ministerium  from  1836  until  his  death,  in 
1867. 

Dr.  C.  F.  Schaeffer,  youngest  son  of  Dr.  F.  D.  Schaeffer, 
was  pastor  in  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  New  York,  and 
Ohio,  and  enjoyed  the  distinction  of  having  been  pro- 
fessor in  three  theological  seminaries,  viz.,  that  of  the  Ohio 
Synod  at  Columbus  (1840-43),  that  of  the  General  Synod 
at  Gettysburg,  Pa.  (1856-64),  and  that  of  the  Ministerium 
of  Pennsylvania  at  Philadelphia  (1864-79).  He  was  one 
of  the  most  prolific  writers  among  his  brethren,  being  a 
frequent  contributor  of  most  scholarly  articles  to  the  *'  Lu- 
theran Intelligencer,"  '*  Evangelical  Review,"  the  "  Biblio- 
theca  Sacra,"  etc.  His  translation  of  Kurtz's  ''  Sacred 
History  "  remains  still  a  text-book  in  many  theological 
seminaries ;  that  of  Lechler  on  Acts,  belonging  to  the 
Lange  series  of  commentaries,  was  published  in  the  next 
period.  Dr.  Schaeffer  was  a  most  careful  and  accurate 
teacher,  and  exerted  his  chief  influence  from  the  professor's 
chair.  He  was  the  chief  advocate  of  a  higher  confessional 
position  in  his  synod,  and,  although  at  first  meeting  with 
a  temporary  check,  was  at  last  enabled  to  see  his  proposi- 
tions adopted. 

Dr.  J.  G.  Morris,  still  preaching,  lecturing,  and  writing 
with  vigor,  was  already,  early  in  the  decade  between  1830 
and  1840,  one  of  the  most  active  and  prominent  of  our 


390  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxii. 

ministers  in  all  good  works.  He  had  studied  theology  at 
Princeton,  and  had  been  a  member  of  the  first  class  with 
which  the  seminary  at  Gettysburg  had  opened  in  1826; 
in  1829  a  delegate  to  the  General  Synod  and  chairman  of 
the  first  committee  that  was  announced;  in  1831  the 
founder  of  *'  The  Lutheran  Observer  "  ;  in  1832  a  member 
of  the  first  board  of  trustees  of  Pennsylvania  College ;  he 
has  been  actively  identified  with  almost  all  the  boards  of 
the  General  Synod,  and  twice  its  president.  He  has  pub- 
lished many  books,  both  Lutheran  and  scientific.  One  of 
his  chief  distinctions  has  been  the  interest  that  he  has 
quickened,  by  a  number  of  volumes  and  numerous  articles 
in  the  church  papers,  in  everything  pertaining  to  the  life 
of  Luther.  Although  having  completed  his  ninetieth 
year,  he  is  president  of  the  Maryland  Historical  Society, 
and  is  engaged  in  establishing  a  society  of  American  Lu- 
theran Church  History. 

An  older  contemporary  of  Dr.  Morris  in  the  Maryland 
Synod,  and  his  predecessor  in  Lutheran  journalism,  was 
Dr.  D.  F.  Schaefi"er,  of  Frederick,  Md.  (i  787-1837),  an- 
other son  of  Dr.  F.  D.  Schaeffer,  who,  amidst  exhausting 
pastoral  duties,  found  time  to  be  a  faithful  theological  in- 
structor, was  one  of  the  most  active  friends  of  the  General 
Synod,  its  secretary  from  1820  to  1831,  its  president  from 
1 83 1  to  1835,  and  the  editor  of  the  admirably  conducted 
''Lutheran  Intelligencer"  from  1826  to  1831. 

Farther  south,  Dr.  Eichelberger  at  Winchester,  Va. 
(which  he  left  for  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Lexington, 
S.  C,  in  1853),  ^rid  Dr.  J.  Bachman  of  Charleston,  S.  C, 
renowned  as  the  associate  of  the  Audubons  in  ornithology 
and  mammalogy,  were  the  most  prominent. 

In  New  York,  Drs.  Pohlmann  of  Albany,  G.  B.  Miller 
of  Hartwick  Seminary,  and  G.  A.  Lintner,  a  graduate  of 
Union,   editor  of  the  *'  Lutheran    Magazine,"    are   to   be 


THE    OHIO   SYNOD.  39 1 

mentioned  among  the  English-speaking,  and  Dr.  C.  F.  E. 
Stohhnann  among  the  German,  pastors.  Dr.  H.  I.  Schmidt, 
after  leaving  Gettysburg,  Pa.,  was  a  learned  professor  of 
Columbia  College,  New  York. 

The  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Ohio  Synod  was 
opened  at  Canton,  O.,  October  15,  1830,  because  the  pro- 
fessor who  was  elected  by  the  synod  was  at  that  time 
pastor  of  five  congregations  in  the  neighborhood.^  The 
next  year  it  was  removed  to  Columbus,  O.  Professor 
W.  Schmidt  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-six,  in  1839.  Dur- 
ing the  professorship  of  Dr.  Schaeffer,  in  1843,  two  dele- 
gates were  sent  to  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  in 
order  to  secure  its  cooperation  in  the  sustaining  of  the 
seminary  and  the  supply  of  students.  Rev.  W.  F.  Leh- 
man, who  became  theological  professor  in  1847  ^"^^^ 
served  until  near. his  death,  in  1880,  was  a  child  of  the 
mother  congregation  in  Philadelphia.  Capital  University, 
the  collegiate  department  growing  out  of  the  necessities 
of  this  seminary,  was  founded  in  1850.  Dr.  W.  M.  Rey- 
nolds was  called  from  Gettysburg  to  the  presidency. 
Revs.  C.  Spielman  and  Professor  Lehman  were  among 
those  who  followed  him.  *'  The  Lutheran  Standard  "  was 
estabHshed  in  1842,  under  the  editorship  of  Dr.  Green- 
wald  for  two  years,  who  was  again  its  editor  from  185  i  to 
1854.  The  names  of  Spielman,  Lehman,  and  Worley 
occur  among  the  others  who  edited  it  in  the  interests  of  a 
decided  confessional  Lutheranism  during  this  period. 

Of  the  younger  men,  besides  those  elsewhere  referred 
to,  may  be  mentioned  Dr.  A.  H.  Lochman,  pastor  at 
York;  Dr.  C.  W.  Schaeffer,  pastor  at  Harrisburg  and  Ger- 
mantown ;  Dr.  W.  J.  Mann,  the  associate  of  Dr.  Demme  ; 
Dr.  C.  F.  Welden ;  Rev.  A.  T.  Geissenhainer,  a  diligent 
liturgical  scholar ;  Dr.  J.  A.  Seiss,  pastor  at  Cumberland 

1  Spielman's  "  Geschichte,"  p.  36. 


392  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxii. 

and  Baltimore,  Md.,  who  in  1858  succeeded  Dr.  P.  F. 
Mayer,  in  Philadelphia;  Dr.  C.  P.  Krauth,  Jr.,  and  his 
friend  Dr.  B.  M.  Schmucker,  both  beginning  their  ministry 
in  the  South  and  afterward  laboring  together  in  the  synod 
which  ordained  their  fathers ;  Dr.  S.  W.  Harkey,  who, 
after  a  successful  pastorate  at  Frederick,  Md.,  became 
president  of  Illinois  State  University ;  Dr.  Charles  A. 
Hay,  who  in  1844  became  professor  of  Hebrew  at  Gettys- 
burg, and  from  1848  to  1865  was  an  active  pastor;  Drs. 
F.  R.  Anspach,  G.  Diehl,  E.  W.  Hutter,  and  F.  W.  Conrad, 
the  future  editors  of  the  '*  Observer"  ;  Dr.  T.  Stork,  who 
left  Philadelphia  to  develop  the  educational  resources  in 
his  native  South,  and  returned  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war  to  Baltimore ;  Dr.  D.  F.  Bittle,  the  founder  of  Roan- 
oke, as  his  brother,  Dr.  D.  H.  Bittle,  was  the  founder  of 
North  Carolina  College ;  Dr.  J.  A.  Brown,  pastor  at 
Reading  and  professor  in  South  Carolina,  of  Quaker  par- 
entage, who  had  come  into  prominence  by  an  attack  of 
great  vigor  upon  the  theology  of  his  predecessor  at 
Gettysburg;  Dr.  G.  F.  Krotel,  pastor  in  Lebanon  and 
Lancaster,  almost  in  his  youth  one  of  the  best  known 
members  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania.  The  Ten- 
nessee Synod  was  known  through  the  Henkels  and  Stier- 
walds  and  Foxes.  \\\  the  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio  the  name 
of  Dr.  Matthias  Loy  is  associated  with  nearly  every  pub- 
lication of  value  that  has  been  issued  during  the  last  third 
of  a  century,  but  his  remarkable  activity  was  just  beginning 
as  this  period  closes.  To  enter  into  the  same  critical  ex- 
amination of  the  literature  as  has  been  done  in  preceding 
periods  is  manifestly  impossible ;  the  nearer  we  reach  the 
present,  the  less  we  can  enter  into  details  and  the  more 
we  must  confine  ourselves  to  tracing  tendencies  and  stat- 
ing principles  the  explanation  of  which  will  be  found  in 
the  history  that  has  preceded. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

THE    CONFESSIONAL    REACTION. 

About  the  middle  of  this  period  new  elements  entered 
which  greatly  influenced  the  subsequent  development. 

The  circumstances  connected  with  the  formation  of  the 
Tennessee  Synod,  by  a  break  from  the  North  CaroHna 
Synod,  have  been  the  subject  of  controversy.  When  the 
case  is  fully  reviewed,  beneath  the  personal  motives  which 
may  have  contributed  to  the  result  those  connected  with 
an  important  doctrinal  divergence  must  be  conceded. 
Paul  Henkel,  the  pioneer  missionary  of  the  Ministerium  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  one  of  the  founders  of  both  the  North 
Carolina  and  Ohio  synods,  and  his  four  sons,  were  men 
of  great  force  of  character  and  depth  of  personal  convic- 
tions. Without  much  learning  of  the  schools,  they  were 
persevering  students.  The  extremes  to  which  measures 
were  pressed  in  the  South  against  which  their  traditional 
Lutheran  spirit  rebelled,  drove  them  to  the  study  of  the 
old  standards  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  its  confessions  of 
faith,  and  the  writings  of  Luther.  They  were  as  fearless 
and  outspoken  as  they  became  firm  in  their  conviction 
that  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America  had  drifted  from  its 
moorings.  Many  of  their  attempts  may  be  criticised  as 
ill-advised,  as  also  their  earlier  literature  falls  beneath  the 
tests  of  even  a  moderate  standard  of  excellence.  But  time 
has  vindicated  their  sincerity,  earnestness,  and  the  correct- 
ness of  their  judgment  on  not  a  few  points  upon  which 
they  were  greeted  with   opposition  and   ridicule.     They 

393 


394  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxiii. 

were,  in  the  twenties,  the  most  vigorous  assailants  of  both 
the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  General  Synod. 
The  formal  questions  addressed  to  the  former,  challenging 
its  Lutheranism,  were  not  deemed  worthy  of  an  answer. 
The  constitution  of  the  General  Synod  it  published  with 
a  commentary,  not  altogether  fair  and  yet  not  altogether 
wrong.  It  left  its  permanent  monument  in  the  English 
translation  of  the  ''Book  of  Concord."  This  work  was 
■due  largely  to  the  energy  of  S.  G.  Henkel,  M.D.,  a  physi- 
cian and  grandson  of  Paul  Henkel.  The  risk  was  great, 
and  the  mode  he  undertook  to  publish  the  book  from  his 
own  press  was  most  heroic.  The  translators  were  three 
members  of  the  Henkel  family,  and  Revs.  J.  Stirewalt, 
H.  Wetzel,  and  J.  R.  Moser.  The  first  edition,  published  in 
185  I,  was  followed  by  a  second  in  1854,  revised  by  Dr. 
Krauth,  Sr.,  of  Gettysburg,  Professor  Lehman  and  Dr. 
Reynolds,  of  Columbus,  Dr.  J.  G.  Morris,  and  C.  F. 
Schaeffer.  Nor  was  it  the  only  service  of  the  kind  which 
was  rendered  the  church.  A  volume  of  selections  from 
Luther  on  the  sacraments  served  to  show  plainly  what 
was  the  teaching  of  the  great  reformer.  Without  any 
great  display  of  missionary  activity,  the  Tennessee  Synod 
grew  steadily  in  the  States  of  North  and  South  Carolina, 
Virginia,  and  Tennessee.  In  i860  the  ministers  in  Ten- 
nessee formed  the  Holston  Synod,  and  since  then  the 
Tennessee  Synod  has  no  pastors  or  congregations  in  the 
State  of  that  name. 

In  Germany  the  effort  made  in  181 7  by  King  Frederick 
William  III.  to  unite  "  the  two  slightly  divergent  confes- 
sions," the  Lutheran  and  the  Reformed,  met  with  a  far 
different  result  from  what  had  been  anticipated.  The 
process  seemed  simple  enough.  The  Reformed  were 
thought  to  have  universally  abandoned  the  doctrine  of 
absolute  predestination,   and   the  Lutherans  that   of   the 


THE  BUFFALO  SYNOD.  395 

real  presence.  *'  But,"  as  a  theologian  of  the  Union, 
Hagenbach,  remarks,  "it  is  plain  that  a  union  which 
merely  cancels  differences,  and  destroys  one  zero  by  an- 
other, is  neither  real  nor  satisfactory."  ^  It  only  served 
to  bring  out  into  still  greater  prominence  the  confessional 
antithesis,  when  the  attempt  was  made  in  Prussia  to  fur- 
nish the  churches  with  a  uniform  liturgy.  It  proved  to  be 
too  positive  for  the  adherents  of  the  theology  of  lUumin- 
ism,  too  Lutheran  for  the  Reformed,  and  too  Reformed 
for  the  Lutherans.  It  set  earnest  minds  to  thinking,  drove 
men  to  the  study  of  the  sources  of  the  confessional  diver- 
gence, which  had  largely  been  forgotten,  and  revived  the 
lines  of  demarkation  that  had  been  gradually  fading. 
Strange  to  say,  *'  even  the  same  peacemakers  who  wxre 
called  to  give  their  aid  to  the  Union,  such  as  Schleier- 
macher,  started  the  discussion  of  these  differences."  ^ 
After  long  delays,  it  was  not  until  1830  that  the  hturgi- 
cal  revision  had  reached  such  shape  that  it  could  be  in 
any  way  enforced. 

Among  decided  Lutherans  it  met  with  a  twofold  recep- 
tion. Some  refused  absolutely  to  recognize  the  Union, 
formed  separate  congregations,  and  carried  on  a  most  active 
controversy  against  what  they  believed  to  be  a  most  gross 
form  of  ecclesiastical  tyranny.  Others,  remaining  in  the 
Union,  did  not  fail  to  continue  to  utter  a  most  decided 
protest,  and,  by  learned  publications,  to  give  testimony  to 
their  Lutheran  faith. 

Among  the  Separatists,  or  "  Old  Lutherans,"  as  they 
were  called,  were  some  who  ultimately  came  to  this  coun- 
try because  of  their  fidehty  to  their  confession.  Rev. 
Johannes  A.  A.  Grabau,  pastor  of  St.  Andrew's  Church, 

1  "  History  of  the  Christian  Church  in  the  Eighteenth  and  Nineteenth 
Centuries,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  350. 
2//;/V/.,  p.  351. 


396  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxiii. 

Erfurt  (born  1804,  died  1879),  a  graduate  of  Halle,  made 
his  opposition  so  prominent  that  he  was  deposed  from 
office  and  imprisoned  for  a  year.  Emigration  being  finally 
determined  upon,  he  sailed,  with  one  thousand  adherents, 
from  Hamburg,  in  July,  1839.  The  most  of  the  colony 
settled  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  and  its  neighborhood,  where  four 
churches  under  his  care  sprung  up,  and  an  institution 
(Martin  Luther  College)  began  to  train  candidates  for  the 
ministry.  From  these  foundations  there  was  formed  in 
1845  the  Buffalo  Synod,  or  **  Synod  of  Exiles  from  the 
Lutheran  Church  of  Prussia."  It  consisted,  in  the  begin- 
ning, of  four  pastors  and  eighteen  lay  delegates.  It  grew 
little  externally,  but  has  retained  a  large  portion  of  the 
descendants  of  the  immigration.  Its  strength  was  for  a 
long  time  largely  spent  in  defending  itself  against  the  un- 
tiring polemics  of  the  Missouri  Synod,  with  which  it  dif- 
fered on  the  doctrines  of  the  church  and  the  ministry  and 
ordination,  and  assumed  what  the  latter  synod  regarded  a 
hierarchical  position. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  (1839)  that  the  found- 
ers of  the  Buffalo  Synod  reached  their  future  home 
from  the  Atlantic  coast,  a  far  stronger  accession  to  the 
Lutheran  Church  entered  "the  West,"  from  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  by  way  of  the  Mississippi  River.  In  Saxony  the 
Lutheran  reaction  had  found  its  most  zealous  advocate  in 
Martin  Stephan  (born  1777),  who  combined  the  spirit  of 
an  intense  Pietism  with  the  most  rigid  adherence  to  the 
orthodoxy  of  the  Lutheran  Confessions.  As  pastor  of  St. 
John's  Church,  Dresden,  his  sermons,  which  were  chiefly 
calls  to  repentance,  drew  large  audiences  and  created  deep 
interest.  He  supplemented  his  public  services  by  private 
devotional  exercises  and  **  conventicles,"  prolonged  until 
late  in  the  night.  His  advice  was  sought  by  large  num- 
bers concerned  about  their  personal  religious  life.      Ham- 


THE  MISSOURI  SYNOD.  397 

pered  by  his  ecclesiastical  connections,  he  consulted  Dr. 
Benjamin  Kurtz,  when  in  Germany  to  collect  for  the  Get- 
tysburg Seminary,  concerning  the  planting  of  a  Lutheran 
colony  in  America,  and,  when  the  magistrates  were  exer- 
cising unusual  supervision  over  his  meetings,  concerning 
which  some  suspicions  of  wrong  were  being  entertained, 
he  took  measures  to  carry  out  his  plans.  With  his  unu- 
sual power  over  men,  a  band  of  six  clergymen  and  eight 
hundred  souls  were  collected,  who  were  ready  from  relig- 
ious motives  to  accompany  him.  Five  vessels  sailed ;  the 
first,  the  "  Amalia,"  was  never  heard  from ;  the  rest 
reached  New  Orleans  at  the  beginning  of  January,  1839. 
It  was  difficult  for  the  spell  which  their  leader  held  over 
them  to  be  broken.  Even  on  board  the  vessels  that  car- 
ried them  across  the  ocean,  they  signed  a  declaration  of 
absolute  submission  to  his  authority.  But  the  rumors  of 
his  secret  sins  at  last  were  fully  confirmed.  The  preacher 
who  had  awakened  so  many  to  a  sense  of  sin  was  found 
to  have  become,  in  his  old  age,  a  deceiver.  Deposed  and 
excommunicated,  he  was  sent  away  from  his  people,  to 
pass  his  last  days  in  obscurity. 

Three  of  the  four  pastors  in  the  company  were  closely 
related,  viz.,  the  brothers  O.  H.  and  C.  F.  W.  Walther,  and 
their  brother-in-law,  E.  G.  W.  Keyl.  The  fourth  was 
Rev.  G.  H.  Lober.  Some  of  the  immigrants  settled  in  St. 
Louis,  where  the  elder  of  the  brothers  Walther  became 
pastor.  The  larger  portion  found  a  home  in  Perry  County, 
Mo.,  divided  among  several  parishes,  served  by  the  three 
remaining  pastors.  Christ  Church  (Protestant  Episcopal) 
of  St.  Louis  gave  Pastor  O.  PL  W^alther's  congregation 
the  use  of  the  basement  of  their  building,  for  a  merely 
nominal  rent,  for  three  years'  service,  and  this  courteous 
act  has  never  been  forgotten  by  the  large  mother-church 
of  the  Missouri  Synod,  which  was  thus  cared  for  in  the 


398  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxiii. 

days  of  its  poverty.  The  elder  Walther  died  in  1841,  and 
was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  whose  Hfe  is  so  closely  con- 
nected with  that  of  the  powerful  synod  which  he  organized, 
and  which  was  the  expression  of  his  own  spirit,  that  even 
the  details  of  his  private  biography  belong  to  the  history 
of  the  church.  Muhlenberg  and  Walther  are  the  most 
prominent  figures  in  the  history  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
in  America  up  to  this  time. 

Walther  was  by  no  means  a  spiritual  child  of  Stephan, 
completely  as,  at  one  time,  he  was  beneath  the  influence 
of  the  latter.  He  went  to  Stephan  for  advice  in  an  ad- 
vanced stage  of  his  spiritual  struggles.  The  son,  grandson, 
and  great-grandson  of  pastors,  he  had  already  become  a 
university  student  before  he  possessed  a  Bible,  when  he 
purchased  one  with  his  last  penny,  not  knowing  whence 
the  necessities  of  life  would  be  supplied.  Up  to  that 
time  he  acknowledges  his  great  want  of  acquaintance  with 
the  most  elementary  Scriptural  truths.  Rationalism  dom- 
inated everywhere.  His  purpose  to  study  for  the  min- 
istry had  been  formed  by  reading  Schubert's  ''  Life  and 
Work  of  Oberlin."  At  the  University  of  Leipzig  Walther 
became  one  of  a  band  of  students  who  repeated  over 
again  the  experience  of  the  students  at  Cambridge  in  the 
sixteenth  century  in  their  study  of  the  Word  of  God,  and 
suggest  the  Wesleys  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the 
Tractarians  of  the  nineteenth  century  at  Oxford.  They 
met  for  prayer,  the  reading  of  Scripture,  and  the  discus- 
sion of  practical  religious  questions.  They  attended  also 
a  Collegiuvi  PJiilobiblicuvi  held  by  Professor  Lindner,  for 
the  spiritual  edification  of  students.  They  soon  became 
accustomed  to  the  terms  of  **  Mystics,"  "  Pietists,"  **  ob- 
scurantists," "hypocrites,"  "fanatics,"  with  which  their 
fellow-students  reviled  them.  While  in  the  beginning 
they  thought  nothing  of  confessional  distinctions,  as  they 


C.    F.    W.    WALTHER.  399 

advanced  in  knowledge  and  in  depth  of  religious  experi- 
ence they  could  not  refrain  from  comparing  their  relig- 
ious convictions  with  the  confessions  of  the  churches,  and 
inquiring  where  they  belonged,  whether  to  the  Lutheran, 
or  the  Reformed,  or  the  United  Church.  The  writings  of 
Arndt,  Francke,  Bogatsky,  Spener,  Rambach,  Fresenius, 
etc.,  were  diHgently  read.  A  legaHstic  element  colored 
their  entire  conception  of  religion.  Walther  especially 
passed  through  a  period  of  great  spiritual  anguish,  full  of 
doubts  and  conflicts,  and  in  danger  of  breaking  down  phys- 
ically under  the  strain,  until  a  letter  of  Stephan  pointed 
him  to  the  sure  source  of  peace  and  joy  in  Christ.  Dis- 
abled from  university  work,  and  confined  to  the  par- 
sonage of  his  father  by  a  serious  pulmonary  trouble,  he 
read  with  avidity  Luther's  w^orks  found  in  his  father's 
library,  and  thus  laid  the  foundation  for  theological  at- 
tainments which  the  learned  faculties  of  the  university 
could  not  supply.  Following  the  custom  of  candidates  in 
Germany,  he  taught  for  some  years  before  taking  charge 
of  a  congregation,  during  which  time  his  theological  posi- 
tion was  more  thoroughly  matured.  He  was  ordained 
and  became   pastor  at  Braunsdorf,   Saxony,  in  January, 

1837. 

Soon  the  pastorate  involved  him  in  new  conflicts. 
What  was  the  earnest  young  pastor  to  do  when  he  en- 
countered on  every  hand  the  marks  of  the  spiritual  deso- 
lation from  which  he  had  just  escaped?  How  could  he 
use  a  rationalistic  liturgy,  a  rationalistic  hymn-book,  and 
rationalistic  school-books  ?  It  was  not  in  his  power  or  the 
power  of  the  congregation  to  change  them.  The  superin- 
tendent upon  whom  rested  the  responsibility  was  also  a 
rationalist.  His  own  father  had  little  sympathy  with  his 
son's  zeal.  What  was  he  to  do  as  a  preacher?  Was  it 
not  his  duty  with  all  plainness  and  directness  to  rebuke 


400  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxiii. 

sin?  And  yet  what  heed  should  be  given  to  the  censures 
of  those  placed  above  him,  protesting  against  such  attacks 
upon  his  congregation  ?  Saxony  was  indeed  exempt  from 
the  Unionistic  oppression  of  Prussia;  the  old  oath  to  all 
the  Lutheran  Confessions  was  still  extant ;  but  to  young 
Walther  this  was  a  mere  comedy,  with  liturgy  and  hymn- 
book  teaching  another  doctrine,  and  the  church  authorities 
conniving  at  all  efforts  to  supplant  what  was  most  vital  in 
the  confessions.  With  great  joy,  therefore,  he  welcomed 
Stephan's  invitation  to  aid  in  the  establishing  of  an  ideal 
church  in  America,  in  which  an  escape  would  be  made 
from  the  compromising  relations  in  which  he  had  found 
himself  entangled. 

No  time  was  lost  after  the  arrival  in  preparing  for  the 
future  development  of  the  church.  In  the  summer  of 
1839  a  circular  was  issued  announcing  that  a  gymna- 
sium would  be  opened  on  October  1st  in  Perry  County, 
Mo.,  giving  full  instruction  in  all  branches  preparatory 
to  the  German  university  course.  The  younger  Walther 
was  at  the  head  of  the  faculty,  and  associated  with  him 
were  three  candidates,  Fiirbringer,  Brohm,  and  Biinger, 
who  had  belonged  to  the  circle  of  students  at  Leipzig 
with  whom  Walther  had  prayed  and  struggled  into  the 
light.  What  difference  did  it  make  that  the  building  was 
a  primitive  log-house  with  only  three  or  four  windows 
and  a  door,  as  long  as  the  institution  was  furnished  with 
such  a  faculty?  They  at  once  found  pupils  among  the 
immigrants,  whose  subsequent  career  proved  the  justice  of 
their  course.  It  was  the  beginning  of  the  great  institu- 
tions of  Missouri  Synod,  at  Fort  Wayne,  Ind.,  St.  Louis, 
Mo.,  Springfield  and  Addison,  111.,  which  have  sent  their 
hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of  ministers  throughout  our 
whole  country,  with  scarcely  a  State  in  the  Union  where 
they  have  not  been  active.      The  young  professors  were 


SPIRITUAL    CONFLICTS.  4OI 

unconcerned  about  their  support ;  they  labored  on  in  the 
confidence  that  if  the  Lord  had  a  work  to  be  done,  and 
he  had  called  them  to  it,  they  would  be  amply  provided 
for.  Can  any  one  doubt  what  would  have  been  the  fate 
of  these  immigrants  if  they  had  not  drawn  their  pastors 
from  their  own  people,  and  had  been  content  to  rely 
upon  Germany  to  supply  the  constantly  expanding  neces- 
sities of  their  work  ?  We  need  only  contrast  the  history 
of  this  development  with  that  of  the  Dutch  and  Swedish 
churches  of  our  first  period,  and  even  with  that  of  the 
other  German  churches  up  to  a  comparatively  recent  time, 
to  learn  the  lesson  that  church  progress  in  America  is 
largely  conditioned  upon  the  supply  of  the  pastorates  of 
our  churches  by  young  men  selected  from  our  own  congre- 
gations, and  trained  for  this  work  in  our  own  institutions, 
however  humble  and  primitive  those  institutions  may  be. 
New  responsibilities  meeting  them  with  the  deposition 
of  their  leader,  awakened  new  conflicts.  They  had  to 
justify  their  course  not  only  before  the  world  and  their 
people,  but  before  their  own  consciences.  Was  not  the 
emigration  a  sin  ?  Were  they  warranted,  without  a  clearer 
indication  of  Providence,  in  abandoning  the  places  where 
they  had  been  put,  by  God's  call,  in  Germany?  Were 
they  actually  ministers,  properly  called  and  properly  ad- 
ministering the  Word  and  sacraments  to  their  congrega- 
tions? Should  not  those  who  had  come  against  God's 
will,  and  with  duties  still  to  be  fulfilled  in  Germany,  return, 
and  be  released  from  their  previous  obligations  in  a  legal 
way,  before  they  could  expect  God's  blessing  upon  their 
labors  in  the  New  World  ?  Such  were  the  questions  they 
discussed  with  one  another,  and  deeply  pondered  in  their 
hearts.  A  most  tender  conscience  did  not  cease  to  harass 
Walther  with  accusations  concerning  his  want  of  full  fidelity 
as  a  pastor,  and  to  suggest  that  one  who  had  been  so  remiss 


402  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxiii. 

in  duty  should  abandon  the  office ;  and  yet  he  knew  well 
how  to  advise  his  elder  brother  that  all  such  doubts  were 
to  be  explained  by  the  lack  of  complete  surrender  of  the 
heart  to  Christ.  More  important  than  all  excerpts  from 
the  theologians  concerning  the  regularity  of  the  call  to  the 
ministry  was  it  to  have  the  assurance  of  the  personal  call 
to  his  kingdom  of  grace.  This  was  the  spiritual  prepa- 
ration through  which  he  reached  his  decisions  concerning 
the  doctrine  of  the  church,  which,  embodied  in  theses,^  and 
defended  in  1841,  in  a  discussion  at  Altenburg,  lay  at  the 
foundation  of  all  the  efforts  subsequently  made  by  Walther 
within  the  sphere  of  church  organization.  Whatever 
Donatistic  tendencies  may  have  led  to  the  emigration  are 
repudiated  by  his  clear  statements  of  the  relation  of  true 
churches  to  those  bodies,  where,  with  the  preaching  of 
the  Word  and  the  pure  sacraments,  there  is  much  error: 

The  external  separation  of  a  heterodox  communion  from  an  orthodox  church 
is  not  a  necessary  separation  from  the  universal  Christian  church ;  nor  is  it 
a  relapse  into  heathenism,  and  does  not  deprive  that  communion  of  the  name 
of  "  church." 

Even  heterodox  communions  have  church  power :  among  them  tlie  bless- 
ings of  the  church  are  given  in  a  valid  manner,  the  ministry  is  exercised,  and 
the  sacraments  administered  with  validity,  and  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  are  employed. 

Even  heterodox  communions  are  not  to  be  disbanded,  but  only  to  be 
reformed. 

This  was  directed  especially  against  the  error  of  Ste- 
phan  that  there  was  no  salvation  outside  of  the  Lutheran 
Church. 

In  accepting  the  call  to  the  congregation  in  St.  Louis 
a  few  weeks  later,  Walther  did  so  with  the  formal  state- 
ment that  he  was  then  convinced  that  bis  sin  in  connec- 
tion with  the  emigration  had  not  been  such  as  to  disqualify 
him   from   the   pastoral   office.      The   pastorate   involved 

1  The  theses  are  found  in  Gunther's  "  Lebensbild,"  pp.  44-46. 


WALT  HER  AS  A    PREACHER.  403 

many  cares,  not  the  least  of  which  was  the  mastery  of  the 
principles  of  church  government,  and  the  embodiment  of 
them  in  a  congregational  constitution,  for  which  the  con- 
temporary constitution  in  Germany  gave  him  Httle  help, 
and  the  previous  work  of  Lutherans  in  America  was  ex- 
cluded by  the  confusion  and  manifest  abuses  everywhere 
prevalent  among  them.  Upon  these  earlier  years  rests 
his  chief  reputation  as  a  preacher.  His  sermons  were 
faithfully  written  out,  and  although  most  of  them  were 
not  published  until  after  his  death,  they  have  all  the  fresh- 
ness of  recent  compositions.  When,  in  1874,  Dr.  A. 
Bromel  completed  his  scientific  criticism  of  the  great 
preachers  of  the  Christian  Church,  he  began  with  Chrysos- 
tom  and  ended  with  Walther.      Of  Walther  he  says : 

He  prays  so  ardently ;  he  quotes  the  most  precious  verses  and  passages  ; 
he  knows  how  to  speak  so  forcibly  from  heart  to  heart ;  he  knows  always,  as 
one  of  deep  experience,  how  to  put  in  the  center  the  chief  theme  of  the  gos- 
pel, viz.,  consolation  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  that,  from  beginning  to  end, 
he  is  heard  with  the  greatest  joy.  The  old  preachers  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
are  so  hard  for  us  to  use,  because  their  form  of  preaching  is  so  entirely  foreign 
to  our  mode  of  discourse.  We  have  to  do  violence  to  ourselves  in  order  to 
avoid  taking  offense  at  their  mode  of  expression.  In  Walther  it  is  entirely 
different.  He  is  as  orthodox  as  John  Gerhard,  but  as  fervent  as  a  Pietist ; 
as  correct  in  form  as  a  university  or  court  preacher,  and  yet  as  popular  as 
Luther  himself.  If  the  Lutheran  Church  will  bring  its  doctrines  again  to  the 
people,  it  must  be  as  faithful  and  definite  in  its  doctrines,  and  as  to  form  as 
interesting  and  thoroughly  adapted  to  the  times,  as  is  the  case  in  Walther. 
He  is  a  model  preacher  in  the  Lutheran  Church.  How  different  would  it  be 
with  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Germany  if  it  had  many  such  preachers  !l 

A  few  themes  which  he  has  drawn  from  his  texts,  and 
upon  which  he  has  elaborated  his  sermons,  will  serve  as 
fair  specimens  of  the  general  character  of  his  sermons : 
**  Nothing  but  faith  renders  us  worthy  to  receive  the  Holy 
Supper  "  ;  ''  How  can  a  man  know  whether  he  be  a  temple 
of  the  Holy  Ghost?  "  ;  ''  How  foolishly  they  act  v/ho  will 

1  Vol.  ii.,  p.  307. 


404  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxiii. 

not  sincerely  confess  before  God  their  sins";  ''The  two 
important  truths  contained  in  the  words  :  '  Jesus  receiveth 
sinners.'  "  While  his  discourses  are  full  of  the  comfort  of 
the  gospel,  they  are  no  less  faithful  declarations  of  the 
law,  solemn  warnings,  and  calls  to  repentance  to  the  im- 
penitent and  careless.  Whitefield  scarcely  could  have 
spoken  with  more  directness  and  pungency.  Most  forcibly 
has  he  condensed  the  faith  of  the  Lutheran  Church  into 
a  summary  in  an  eloquent  passage  in  one  of  his  sermons : 

It  teaches  that  God  hates  no  man,  that  he  loves  all  men,  and  wills  that  all 
men  be  saved.  It  teaches,  further,  that  the  Son  of  God  has  propitiated  God 
for  all  men,  and  redeemed  them ;  that  he  has  blotted  out  the  sins  of  all  men, 
and  purchased  for  all  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins,  and  a  perfect  righteous- 
ness. It  teaches  that  God  passes  over  no  one,  but  earnestly  urges  every  one 
to  receive  his  grace.  It  teaches  that  the  gospel  is  a  great  universal  absolu- 
tion, which  God  has  already  proclaimed  to  all  men,  which  every  one  can  take 
to  himself,  and  every  cme — even  the  greatest  sinner — can  depend  upon  as 
certainly  as  God  is  true.  It  teaches  that  even  those  who  have  fallen  often 
can  return  and  again  find  grace.  It  teaches  that  the  decisive  question  is  not 
whether  man  feel  grace  and  peace  wath  God,  and  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  but 
whether  he  believe  the  promise  of  grace^nd  forgiveness  ;  for  as  man  believes 
from  the  heart  God  to  be,  whether  angry  or  gracious,  so  is  he.  It  teaches 
that  only  two  classes  of  men  will  not  be  saved,  viz.,  those  who  want  to  help 
themselves  out  of  their  sins,  and  those  who  want  to  remain  in  their  sins. 

A  most  prominent  feature  in  his  sermons  is  his  high 
appreciation  of  his  adopted  country,  accompanied  by  the 
exhortation  that  the  advantages  of  living  in  such  a  country 
as  America  brought  corresponding  responsibilities : 

We  live  here  in  a  State  in  wdiich  the  church  enjoys  a  freedom  unsurpassed 
since  its  origin,  and  at  present  to  be  found  scarcely  anywhere  else  in  the 
world.  Our  rulers,  instead  of  allbwing  attacks  to  be  made  upon  the  rights 
of  the  church,  exert  all  their  power  for  the  protection  of  these  rights.  We 
have  here  full  liberty  to  regulate  everything  according  to  God's  Word  and  the 
model  of  the  church  in  its  best  days,  and  to  give  our  church  a  truly  Christian 
and  apostolic  form.  If  we  take  a  glance  at  our  old  German  Fatherland,  how 
entirely  different  do  we  find  it!  There  the  church  is  bound  in  chains.  False 
teachers,  in  most  churches  and  schools,  have  been  forced  upon  the  congre- 
gations, and  the  few  true  ministers  have  their  hands  bound.  The  books 
which  must  be  used  in  church  and  school  are  filled  with  the  poison  of  false 


SIHLER  AND    IVYNEKEN.  405 

doctrine.  A  Christian  father  can  scarcely  have  the  enemy  of  Christ,  as  he 
must  regard  his  pastor,  baptize  his  child  without  receiving  abuse.  If  he 
appeal  to  Christian  liberty,  he  is  regarded  a  rebel.  How  happy,  then,  are 
we,  compared  with  our  brethren  in  our  old  Fatherland! 

The  congregation,  growing  in  strength,  built  in  1842 
its  first  church  building,  and  two  years  later  determined 
to  assume  the  entire  responsibility  for  the  gymnasium  then 
in  Perry  County. 

The  next  year  the  controversy  with  the  Buffalo  pastors 
began.  Up  to  the  time  of  the  pubHcation  of  Pastor 
Grabau's  ''  Hirtenstimme,"  in  December,  1840,  a  union 
between  the  two  bands  of  Lutheran  colonists,  who  had 
much  in  common,  had  been  hoped  for.  But  in  this  pub- 
Hcation Pastor  Walther  found  many  of  the  errors  which 
he  had  entertained  while  under  Stephan's  influence,  and 
which  had  been  surrendered  only  after  most  severe  strug- 
gles. He  regarded  them  as  thoroughly  Romanizing,  and 
expressed  himself  with  entire  freedom.  The  controversy 
continued  for  many  years. 

In  1844  *' Der  Lutheraner  "  was  founded  as  an  organ 
for  the  exposition  and  defense  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  by  the  Missouri  pastors.  This  attracted 
to  them  a  number  of  pastors  who,  either  in  isolation  or 
in  synodical  organizations  with  which  they  had  little  sym- 
pathy, had  been  laboring  upon  the  same  principles.  Prom- 
inent among  them  was  Rev.  Dr.  William  Sihler  (born 
1 80 1,  died  1885),  in  early  life  a  Prussian  lieutenant,  whose 
military  education  had  been  received  at  Berlin,  with  Von 
Moltke  as  one  of  his  fellow-students,  and  who,  after  his 
graduation  in  philology  and  philosophy  at  Breslau  and 
Berlin,  had  been  a  colleague  of  the  theologian  Philippi, 
as  professor  in  a  gymnasium  at  Dresden.  He  was  then 
pastor  of  a  congregation,  and  a  member  of  the  Joint  Synod 
of  Ohio.      Another  was  Rev.  F.  C.  D.  Wyneken,  a  gradu- 


406  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxiii. 

ate  of  Gottingen  and  Halle,  then  at  Fort  Wayne,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  *'  Synod  of  the  West,"  belonging  to  the  General 
Synod,  and  constantly  on  the  defensive  because  of  the 
opposition  of  the  members  of  his  synod  to  the  conservatism, 
which  they  regarded  Romanizing.  When  Wyneken  read 
the  first  number  of  the  "  Lutheraner,"  he  cried  out :  ''Thank 
God!      There  are  still  more  Lutherans  in  America." 

The  formation  of  a  synod  soon  followed.  The  prelim- 
inary conference  was  held  at  Cleveland,  O.,  in  May,  1846. 
The  outlines  of  a  constitution  were  drawn  up,  which  were 
afterward  laid  before  a  still  larger  conference  at  Fort 
Wayne,  Ind.,  in  July,  1846.  All  things  being  ready, 
April  26,  1847,  the  "  German  Evangelical  Lutheran  Synod 
of  Missouri  and  other  States  "  assembled  at  Chicago,  and 
Pastor  Walther  became  its  first  president.  The  synodical 
roll  contains  the  names  of  twenty-two  pastors  and  two 
candidates.  Besides  the  Saxon  pastors,  the  Synod  of 
Ohio  and  the  conference  in  Michigan  both  contributed 
members.  Thirteen  years  later,  when  this  period  of  our 
history  ends,  the  Missouri  Synod  has  grown  into  four  dis- 
trict synods,  aggregating  121  ministers,  154  congregations, 
and  24,537  souls.  The  latest  statistics  (1893)  are:  Min- 
isters, 1237  ;  congregations,  1724;  communicants,  330,000. 

The  leading  features  of  the  synodical  constitution  of  this 
influential  body,  as  they  have  been  gradually  developed 
from  the  principles  laid  down  at  the  beginning,  should  be 
known  by  all  seeking  an  acquaintance  with  the  present 
condition  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America.  Among 
the  conditions  of  admission  are :  the  reception  of  all  the 
symbolical  books  as  "  the  pure  and  uncorrupted  explana- 
tion and  statement  of  the  divine  Word  "  ;  renunciation  of 
all  mingling  of  churches  and  faiths ;  the  use  of  pure 
church-  and  school-books ;  the  regular  call  of  pastors ; 
the  use  of   the  German   language  in  synodical   sessions. 


THE   COMMISSION   TO   GERMANY.  407 

Orthodox  pastors  not  authorized  by  their  congregations 
to  act  as  their  representatives  may  be  admitted  as  advis- 
ory members.  The  synod  is  divided  into  district  synods 
holding  annual  sessions,  while  the  synod  assembles  as  a 
whole  every  three  years.  The  synod  is  regarded  only  an 
advisory  body  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  government  of 
the  individual  congregations.  Synodical  resolutions  are 
not  in  force  until  ratified  by  the  congregations.  Every 
district  president,  during  his  three  years'  term  of  office,  is 
required  to  make  a  visitation  of  all  the  congregations,  in 
which  he  hears  at  least  one  sermon  of  the  pastor  and  crit- 
icises it,  attends  the  catechetical  instruction  for  the  same 
purpose,  examines  into  the  use  of  liturgical  forms,  the 
nature  of  the  service  held  on  week-days,  and  the  manner 
in  which  the  pastor  administers  the  private  care  of  souls. 
The  congregation  and  schools  are  subject  to  a  similar  in- 
spection. District  synods  may  be  divided  into  a  number 
of  smaller  districts,  for  a  more  thorough  visitation. 

In  1850  Walther  ceased  to  be  a  pastor,  and  became 
professor  of  theology  in  the  seminary,  then  established 
at  St.  Louis,  giving  his  lectures  for  some  months  in  his 
own  dwelling.  The  same  autumn  he  was  reheved  of  the 
presidency  of  the  synod  by  the  election  of  Wyneken,  who 
had  succeeded  him  as  pastor  at  St.  Louis.  In  August, 
185 1,  Walther  and  Wyneken  were  sent  to  Germany  by 
their  synod  to  confer  with  the  more  conservative  Lutheran 
theologians  of  Germany,  and  especially  with  William  L5he, 
of  Neuendettelsau,  who  had  shown  himself  a  warm  friend 
of  the  Missourians,  and  had  sent  them  a  number  of  young 
pastors  from  his  seminary,  but  with  whom  a  misunder- 
standing had  arisen.  In  the  published  writings  of  Lohe 
the  Missourians  thought  they  could  detect  the  same  dan- 
gerous hierarchical  principles  on  account  of  which  they 
had  been  so  long  in  controversy  with  the  Buffalo  Synod, 


4o8  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxiii. 

while  Lohe,  in  turn,  had  feared  that  the  extreme  congre- 
gationaUsm  of  the  Missourians  would  end  in  the  overthrow 
of  all  church  order.  Notwithstanding  the  very  cordial 
meeting  between  them,  and  their  deep  interest  in  their 
mutual  work  for  the  Lutheran  Church,  the  hopes  enter- 
tained that  a  permanent  settlement  would  be  reached  were 
fruitless.  They  were  welcomed  wherever  they  went,  espe- 
cially by  Guericke  at  Halle,  Kahnis  at  Leipzig,  Harless 
at  Dresden,  H5fling,  Thomasius,  Hofmann,  and  Delitzsch 
at  Erlangen.  At  the  latter  place  Walther  spent  a  month, 
finishing,  with  the  aid  of  the  University  Library,  his  book, 
''  Kirche  und  Amt."  They  were  candid  in  dissenting  from 
what  they  regarded  the  inconsistencies  of  their  friends 
and  hosts.  ^  Their  presence  greatly  increased  the  interest 
that  had  been  felt  in  Germany  for  the  Lutheran  Church 
in  this  country. 

The  monthly  theological  journal,  the  ''  Lehre  und 
Wehre,"  founded  in  1853,  enabled  Professor  Walther  to 
enter  more  fully  into  the  discussion  of  topics  for  the  pas- 
tors, while  the  ''  Lutheraner  "  was  devoted  to  the  edifica- 
tion of  the  people.  About  this  time  began  the  discussions 
with  the  Iowa  Synod. 

This  synod  was  formed  August  24,  1854,  by  pupils  of 
Lohe  who  were  dissatisfied  with  what  they  regarded  the 
extreme  Congregationalism  of  Missouri,  and  its  denial  of 
the  existence  of  open  questions  in  theology.  Missouri 
maintained  that  there  were  no  questions  that  were  extra- 
confessional.  Among  the  open  questions  for  which  Iowa 
contended  was  the  tolerance  within  the  Lutheran  Church 
of  subtile  chiliasm.  The  proposition  that  the  pope  is 
Antichrist,  taught  in  the  Smalcald  Articles,  was  insisted 
upon  by  Missouri-,  and  denied  by  Iowa,  as  essential  to  the 

1  See  "  The  Delegation  of  the  Moravian  Synod  in  Germany,"  "  Evangel- 
ical Review,"  vol.  iv.,  pp.  63,  544. 


THE   IOWA    SYNOD.  409 

integrity«of  a  pledge  to  the  Lutheran  Confessions.  The 
Iowa  Synod  planted  itself  upon  an  unconditional  subscrip- 
tion to  all  the  doctrines  contained  in  the  Lutheran  Con- 
fessions, but  has  maintained  that  the  confessions  must  be 
understood  in  their  historical  relations.  They  are  '*  not  a 
code  of  law  of  atomistic  dogmas  of  equal  value  and  equal 
weight,  but  an  organic  expression  of  the  living  connection 
of  the  faith  of  the  church.  Accordingly  there  is  a  dis- 
tinction to  be  made  between  the  dogmas  properly  speak- 
ing and  other  parts  of  the  symbols;  as,  e.g.,  the  frequent 
exegetical,  historical,  and  other  deductions,  illustrations, 
and  demonstrations.  Only  the  former,  i.e.,  the  dogmas, 
constitute  the  confession.  What  the  symbols  state  as 
a  confession,  this  it  is  to  which  the  synod  is  bound."  ^ 
Hence,  the  Iowa  Synod,  from  the  beginning,  protested 
against  what  it  regarded  ''  a  legalistic  misuse  of  the  sym- 
bols." Iowa  took  a  position  between  Missouri  and  Buffalo 
in  respect  to  the  ministerial  office.  It  agreed  with  the 
former  in  teaching  that  the  ministerial  office  was  originally 
given  by  God  to  the  church,  but  differed  from  it  by  deny- 
ing that  the  office  had  been  given  the  individual  members, 
and  insisting  that  it  always  belonged  to  the  church  in  its 
totality.^ 

Rev.  G.  Grossman,  who  had  been  sent  by  Lohe  in  1852 
to  Saginaw  City,  Mich.,  to  establish  a  Teachers'  Seminary 
for  the  Missourians,  removed  the  next  year  to  Dubuque, 
la.,  and  founded  the  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Iowa 
Synod.  Here  he  was  joined  shortly  afterward  by  Rev.  J. 
Deindorfer,  who  had  also  been  a  member  of  the  Missouri 
Synod.  In  September,  1854,  Rev.  Sigismund  Fritschel, 
trained  at  Nuremberg  and  Neuendettelsau  for  the  mission- 

1  Dr.  S.  Fritschel  in  "  Distinctive  Doctrines  and  Usages"  (Philadelphia, 
1893),  p.  66. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  69. 


4IO  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxiii. 

field,  began  his  work  in  the  institution  as  a  theological 
professor,  which,  interrupted  for  three  years,  was  resumed 
at  St.  Sebald,  la.,  in  1858,  and  still  continues.  His 
brother,  Gottfried  Fritschel,  became  a  professor  in  the 
same  seminary  in  1857,  and  was  active  with  his  pen  and 
from  his  chair  until  shortly  before  his  death,  in  1889. 
Under  these  professors  the  German  Iowa  Synod  has  be- 
come one  of  the  largest  synods  in  the  country,  covering 
a  wide  area  of  geographical  territory.  Its  chief  develop- 
ment belongs  to  the  succeeding  period,  in  which  its  semi- 
nary was  moved  first  to  Mendota,  111.,  and  then  back  again 
to  Dubuque,  la.,  where  it  had  started  thirty-eight  years 
before. 

The  Rev.  F.  Schmid,  who  began  in  1833  3-  niission 
among  the  North  American  Indians  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Ann  Arbor,  Mich.,  gathered  around  him  a  number  of 
pastors,  chiefly  from  the  Missionary  Seminary  at  Basle, 
who  labored  with  great  self-denial  and  success  among  the 
German  immigrants.  The  conference,  which  for  a  number 
of  years  they  maintained,  became  in  i860  the  Synod  of 
Michigan. 

In  May,  1848,  the  Rev.  J.  Miihlhauser,  who  had  labored 
for  ten  years  with  great  success  in  establishing  the  church 
at  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  entered  into  the  service  of  the  Amer- 
ican Tract  Society  for  Wisconsin.  He  found  it  a  vast 
mission-field.  With  three  other  pastors,  in  December, 
1849,  he  founded  at  Milwaukee  the  Synod  of  Wisconsin, 
which  received  reinforcements  of  pastors  from  the  Rhen- 
ish Missionary  Seminary  at  Barmen,  where  its  founder 
had  been  educated,  and  financial  aid  from  the  Ministerium 
of  Pennsylvania.  Although  the  seminary  at  Barmen  be- 
longed to  the  Union,  the  Wisconsin  Synod  inserted  in  its 
constitution  a  clear  confessional  obligation  to  all  the  sym- 
bolical books. 


THE  NOR  WE  GIA  NS.  4 1  I 

The  mission  work  begun  in  Texas  by  Rev.  C.  Braun,  of 
the  Pittsburg  Synod,  was  prosecuted  by  pastors  drawn 
chiefly  from  the  Chrischona  Institute,  near  Basle,  who 
formed  in  1851  the  Synod  of  Texas. 

The  great  Scandinavian  immigration  was  only  at  its 
beginning.  From  1841  to  1850  the  number  of  immigrants 
from  Norway  and  Sweden  is  reported  by  the  census  as 
having  been  13,903,  and  from  185 1  to  i860,  20,931. 
Compared  with  the  figure  of  560,483  from  1881  to  1890, 
the  number  is  indeed  small ;  but  it  was  sufficiently  large 
to  demand  earnest  efforts  to  supply  the  immigrants  with 
the  means  of  grace.  These  efforts  resulted  in  laying  the 
foundation  of  several  large  Scandinavian  synods  in  the 
West. 

A  small  band  of  Norwegians  in  1825  were  the  pioneers. 
After  nine  years'  stay  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rochester, 
N.  Y.,  they  removed  in  1834  to  La  Salle  County,  111. 
Others  followed  them  in  1837.  During  the  next  decade 
the  State  of  Wisconsin  received  many  Norwegian  settlers, 
who  continued  to  pour  into  Illinois,  as  well  as  in  less  de- 
gree into  Iowa  and  Missouri.  Their  first  pastor  was  a 
Dane,  Rev.  C.  L.  Claussen,  who  came  to  this  country  in 
1843,  to  labor  as  a  schoolmaster  among  the  neglected 
Norwegians.  But  their  spiritual  destitution  was  so  great 
that  he  yielded  to  an  urgent  call  from  those  in  the  Mus- 
keego  settlement,  near  Milwaukee,  and  was  ordained  by 
Rev.  L.  Krause,  of  the  Buffalo  Synod.  When  the  reg- 
ularity of  his  ordination  was  afterward  questioned,  he 
submitted  the  case  to  the  faculty  of  the  University  of 
Christiania,  who  decided  ''  that  the  circumstance  that  an 
ordination  is  performed  by  a  minister,  and  not  by  a  bishop, 
cannot,  in  and  of  itself,  destroy  the  validity  of  a  ministe- 
rial ordination."! 

1  "Evangelical  Review,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  405. 


412  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxiii. 

As  the  missionary  zeal  of  Pastor  Schreuder  had  en- 
kindled interest  in  the  neglected  Norwegians  of  America 
in  the  heart  of  Claussen,  so  it  also  led  to  the  sending 
of  Rev.  J.  W.  Dietrichson  to  America.  Both  desired  to 
follow  the  earnest  pastor  to  Africa,  and  were  thus  brought 
to  this  country.  Pastor  Dietrichson  devoted  himself, 
during  his  stay  (1844-45)  to  the  collecting  and  organizing 
of  congregations,  and  then  returned  to  Norway,  to  awaken 
interest  and  to  aid  in  providing  the  congregations  he  had 
gathered  with  pastors.  From  1846  to  1850  he  was  again 
laboring  in  Wisconsin.  The  formation  of  the  synod  known 
as  '*  The  Norwegian  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  in 
America,"  in  1853,  was  the  result,  Claussen  being  its  first 
president.  Revs.  A.  C.  and  H.  A.  Preus,  U.  V.  Koren, 
and  P.  L.  Larsen  were  among  its  more  prominent  mem- 
bers. The  influence  of  the  Missouri  Synod  upon  this 
body  constantly  grew,  until,  near  the  close  of  this  period, 
it  united  in  the  Theological  Seminary  at  St.  Louis,  Larsen 
having  been  its  first  professor  there. 

Other  Norwegians  were  united  with  Swedes  in  the 
Synod  of  Northern  lUinois,  belonging  to  the  General 
Synod.  Paul  Andersen,  educated  in  Beloit  College,  Wis., 
was  not  only  the  founder  of  both  the  Norwegian  churches 
in  Chicago,  but  cared  for  the  Swedes  until  they  found  a 
true  shepherd  in  Rev.  E.  Carlson. 

Elling  Eilsen  was  a  Norwegian  revival  preacher  who 
came  to  America  in  1839.  The  synod  which  he  founded 
in  1846  was  always  small,  and  was  reduced  ten  years  later 
by  a  serious  division.  It  was  a  movement  favoring  an 
uneducated  ministry,  lay  preaching,  and  other  irregulari- 
ties discountenanced  by  the  rest  of  the  Norwegians.  The 
synod  suffered  a  third  reorganization  and  division  in  1876. 
Eilsen  was  a  follower  of  Hans  Nielsen  Hauge  (1771- 
1824),  who  pursued  a  similar  course  in  his  native  country. 


THE   SWEDES.  413 

Swedish  immigration  began  somewhat  later;  but  the 
Swedes  were  thrown  earHer  into  close  connection  with  the 
Americanized  portion  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  Rev. 
Lars  Paul  Esbjorn  is  universally  acknowledged  as  the 
founder  of  the  Swedish  Church  in  America  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Born  in  1808,  he  arrived  in  this  country 
in  1849,  burying  two  children,  and  himself  prostrated  by 
cholera,  before  he  reached  his  destination  in  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley.  Important  aid  was  afforded  him  in  his  work 
by  the  American  Home  Missionary  Society,  and  by  the 
Lutheran  Churches  on  the  eastern  coast,  amonsr  which  he 
made  an  extensive  tour,  urging  the  claims  of  the  scattered 
Swedes.  Connected,  along  with  his  other  Swedish  breth- 
ren, with  the  Synod  of  Northern  Illinois,  he  became  in 
1858  Scandinavian  professor  of  theology  in  lUinois  State 
University,  Springfield,  111.  In  i860  the  Scandinavians 
separated  from  the  Synod  of  Northern  Illinois  and  the 
institution  at  Springfield,  founding  the  Augustana  Synod, 
and  the  Theological  Seminary,  first  at  Chicago,  then  at 
Paxton,  and  now  at  Rock  Island,  111.  In  the  seminary  of 
the  Augustana  Synod  Esbjorn  labored  for  two  years, 
returning  to  Sweden  in  1862,  and  dying  in  1870.  Among 
the  men  most  actively  identified  Avith  him  in  organizing  the 
Swedes  into  a  compact,  vigorous,  active,  and  efficient  body 
were:  his  successor  as  professor,  T.  N.  Hasselquist,  D.D. 
(died  1 891),  E.  Carlson,  D.D.  (died  1893),  E.  Norelius,D.D., 
and  J.  Swensson  (died  1873).  Compared  to  its  present 
proportions,  the  Augustana  Synod,  as  organized  in  Rock 
County,  Wis.,  June  5,  i860,  with  27  pastors,  49  congrega- 
tions, and  4967  communicants,  was  a  mere  handful.  One 
of  its  founders,^  reviewing  the  past,  traces  the  guiding 
hand  of  Providence  in  the  fact  that  ''  the  Swedish  Evan- 
geUcal  Lutheran  Church  in  America  was  founded  before 
1  Dr.  E.  Norelius,  in  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  v.,  p.  27. 


414  ^■^^'  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxiii. 

the  time  when  the  tide  of  laxity  in  doctrine  and  practice 
swept  over  the  old  Fatherland,"  and  recognizes  ^  the  valu- 
able educational  process  through  which  the  Swedes  had 
passed  during  their  connection  with  the  Synod  of  North- 
ern Illinois. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  one  of  the  chief  obstacles 
against  which  they  had  to  struggle  was  the  vigorous  at- 
tempt, made  through  a  Rev.  G.  Unonius,  to  carry  both 
Norwegians  and  Swedes  into  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  upon  the  ground  that  the  Episcopal  organization 
of  the  churches  of  Norway  and  Sweden  rendered  the 
Episcopal  Church  of  this  country  their  proper  spiritual 
home."-^  The  question  was  effectually  settled  at  that  time, 
and  will  not  be  likely  to  claim  any  attention  in  the  future. 
The  Danes,  thus  far,  are  few  in  number,  and  mingled  with 
the  Norwegians,  the  languages  being  scarcely  more  than 
dialects  of  the  same  tongue,  readily  understood  by  both 
nationalities. 

1  Page  ZZ- 

2  Dr.  W.  M.  Reynolds,  in  "  Evangelical  Review,"  vol.  iii.,  pp.  412  sqq. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

GROWTH    AND    CONFLICTS   IN   THE    OLDER    SYNODS. 

It  was  manifestly  impossible  for  the  development 
within  the  portion  of  the  Lutheran  Church  that  had  been 
planted  by  Muhlenberg  to  be  unaffected  by  these  new 
forces.  It  was  subject  to  their  constant  criticism.  The 
reality,  the  vigor,  the  warmth,  the  solidity  of  a  true  Lu- 
theran Church  life  were  presented  by  living  examples 
among  many  of  the  immigrants,  in  their  poverty  and  iso- 
lation. They  awakened  reminiscences  of  the  days  of 
Muhlenberg  and  his  immediate  successors.  They  were  an 
effectual  answ^er  to  the  charge  that  true  spirituality  and 
fidelity  to  the  Lutheran  confessions  were  incompatible, 
and  that  a  Lutheran  Church  in  America  was  possible  only 
by  discarding  its  distinctive  features  and  learning  of 
others. 

But  they  were  not  the  only  influences  that  were  work- 
ing. Students  were  beginning  to  arise  among  the  minis- 
try who  were  not  content  with  what  they  had  learned  in 
the  seminary  or  read  in  the  periodical  religious  literature 
of  the  day.  The  contemporary  literature  of  Germany 
was  making  its  impression  upon  only  a  few,  it  is  true,  but 
these  few  were  among  the  more  influential.  As  early  as 
1843  the  first  edition  of  the  ''Dogmatic  Theology"  of 
Dr.  H.  Schmid,  of  Erlangen,  had  appeared,  consisting  of  a 
copious  selection  of  definitions  from  the  Lutheran  theolo- 
gians of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  method- 

415 


4l6  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxiv. 

ically  classified.  It  proved  of  untold  value  to  American 
pastors.  Some  of  them,  not  acquainted  with  the  German, 
had  a  system  of  Lutheran  theology,  which  they  could 
read  in  the  Latin  of  the  theologians  quoted.  Even  those 
acquainted  with  the  German  found  in  it  what  was  far 
superior  to  the  writers  of  the  Supranaturalistic  school,  upon 
whom  they  had  hitherto  depended.  Dr.  J.  G.  Morris  de- 
termined that  it  should  appear  in  English,  and  divided  the 
translation  among  the  two  Drs.  Krauth,  Dr.  Baugher,  Sr., 
Dr.  H.  L  Schmidt,  and  Dr.  C.  A.  Hay.  Although  a 
generation  elapsed  before  a  translation  appeared,  the  effects 
of  the  work  were  soon  apparent.  From  the  seminary  at 
Gettysburg  the  elder  Dr.  Krauth  wrote : 

Our  verdict  is  unequivocally  in  behalf  of  the  study,  the  thorough  study,  of 
this  theology.  We  would  have  it  thrown  over  our  church  with  a  liberal  hand  ; 
we  would  have  our  ministers  acquainted  with  the  symbolical  books  ;  we  would 
have  them  all  versed  in  the  distinctive  theology  of  the  church.  We  would 
have  introduced  into  our  theological  schools  the  study  of  the  symbols,  and 
didactic  and  polemic  theology  so  administered  as  to  bring  to  view  pure, 
unadulterated  Lutheranism.  .  .  .  Some  points  may  be  found  untenable ; 
some  may  need  modification  ;  the  defense  of  the  whole  may  be  placed  in 
some  respects  upon  a  surer  basis ;  but,  take  it  all  in  all,  we  do  not  expect  it 
ever  to  become  obsolete,  i 

A  translation  of  the  "  Epitome  Credendorum  "  of  Dr. 
Nicholas  Hunnius  was  made  and  printed  at  Nuremberg 
in  1846  by  a  translator  and  printers  with  a  limited  knowl- 
edge of  the  English  language,  and  sent  to  this  country, 
where  it  was  not  without  its  influence  among  those  who, 
in  their  desire  to  learn,  were  willing  to  overlook  its  many 
blunders. 

The  discussions  connected  with  the  Prussian  Union 
were  eagerly  read.  The  writings  of  Hengstenberg,  Sar- 
torius,  Rudelbach,  Guericke,  Thomasius,  Harless,  found 
those  who  were  ready  and  able  to  utilize  them  in  theolog- 

1  "  Evangelical  Review,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  128  sqq. 


STUDY  OF   GERMAN   THEOLOGY.  417 

ical  discussions,  as  the  pages  of  the  ''  EvangeHcal  Review  " 
show. 

The  new  interest  felt  in  German  theology  in  other  de- 
nominations also  reacted  upon  the  Americanized  Lutheran 
Church.  At  Andover,  Dr.  Park  ;  at  Princeton,  Dr.  Charles 
Hodge ;  at  Union,  Dr.  H.  B.  Smith,  were  able,  from  their 
studies  in  Germany,  to  expound  to  their  pupils  and  diffuse 
in  their  writings  the  peculiarities  of  historical  Lutheran- 
ism,  and  even  to  concede  its  strength,  where  among  Amer- 
ican Lutherans  only  weakness  had  been  found.  But 
still  greater  was  the  impulse  imparted  by  the  coming  of 
Dr.  Philip  Schaff  to  Mercersburg  in  1843,  ^.nd  the  higher 
value  set  upon  German  theology  in  consequence  of  his 
tireless  literary  activity.  Long  before  any  other  denomina- 
tions than  his  own  were  influenced  from  this  source,  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  Pennsylvania,  so  closely  connected 
with  the  German  Reformed,  responded  to  it.  It  checked 
the  current  from  English  and  American  and  turned  it 
toward  German  sources,  from  w4iich  it  had  been  unnat- 
urally separated.  The  "  Kirchenfreund,"  begun  by  Dr. 
Schaff  at  Mercersburg  in  1848,  and  continued  afterward 
by  Dr.  W.  J.  Mann,  was  announced  on  its  title-page  to  be 
the  *'  Organ  for  the  Common  Interests  of  the  American 
German  Churches,"  and  it  proved  to  be  a  powerful  de- 
fense against  extravagances  from  which  both  churches 
were  suffering,  and  a  valuable  auxiliary  of  the  ''  EvangeH- 
cal Review."  Even  the  ''  Mercersburg  Review  "  ^  opened 
its  pages,  in  its  opening  volume  (1849),  to  Schmid's  ex- 
hibition of  the  Christology  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  as 
presented  in  the  translation  of  Dr.  Krauth,  Jr.  This  im- 
pulse was,  of  course,  not  directly  toward  the  confessional 
Lutheran  position,  but  it  was  indirectly  so,  by  bringing  the 
Americanized  German  churches  back  toward  their  histori- 

1  Vol.  i.,  pp.  272  sqq. 


41 8  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxiv. 

cal  moorings.  In  his  lectures  delivered  before  the  Church 
Diet  at  Frankfort  on  the  Main  in  1 854  ^  Dr.  Schaflf  has  given 
a  full  and  very  valuable  estimate  of  the  position  and  divi- 
sions at  that  time  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America, 
and  of  its  relations  to  the  Reformed  Church.  While  this 
sketch  at  the  time  of  its  pubHcation  did  not  escape  criti- 
cism, its  general  correctness  and  the  accuracy  of  its  clas- 
sifications, from  the  standpoint  of  that  time,  when  read 
forty  years  later,  must  be  admitted.  Dr.  Schafif  has 
especially  shown  the  extent  of  the  departure  that  had 
occurred  in  the  left  wing  of  the  General  Synod,  not  only 
from  historical  Lutheranism,  but  from  what  he  regarded 
Evangehcal  Christianity.  Nor  is  he  less  faithful  in  his 
criticism  of  the  weaknesses  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. But  he  notes  the  conservative  reaction  in  the 
older  bodies,  as  ''  in  consequence  partly  of  the  growing 
study  of  German  theology,  partly  of  occurrences  in  a 
sister-church,"  while  at  the  same  time  expressing  his  per- 
sonal conviction  of  the  hopelessness  of  attempts  at  union 
within  the  Lutheran  Church  upon  the  strict  confessional 
basis  of  all  the  symbolical  books.  The  **  new  measures," 
which  had  been  extensively  introduced  into  both  churches, 
were  most  effectually  antagonized  by  Dr.  Schaflf's  col- 
league. Dr.  J.  W.  Nevin.  The  debt  of  gratitude  due  him 
for  this  and  other  services  by  the  Lutheran  churches  was 
formally  expressed  by  the  late  Dr.  C.  P.  Krauth,  Jr.,  in 
introducing  Dr.  Nevin  to  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania 
at  Lancaster,  Pa.,  in  1874. 

Personal  acquaintance  with  staunch  advocates  of  old 
Lutheranism,  such  as  Pastor  Wyneken,  during  his  life  in 
Baltimore  and  his  membership  in  the  General  Synod,  also 
contributed  to  strengthen  the  growing  tendency  among 

1  "America,  Political,  Social,  and  Religious,"  by  Dr.  Philip  Schaff,  New 
York,  1855. 


LOHE.  419 

the  younger  ministers."^  Pastor  Lohe,  whose  interest  in 
the  work  in  America  had  been  stimulated  by  Wyneken's 
visit  to  Germany  in  1841,  and  who  had  aided  him  in  the 
preparation  of  his  book  *'  Die  Noth  der  deutschen  Lu- 
theraner  in  Nord-Amerika,"  issued  from  1842  to  1866  a 
monthly  journal,  **  Kirchliche  Mittheilungen  aus  und  iiber 
Nord-Amerika,"  not  only  abounding  in  information  con- 
cerning the  progress  of  the  missions  connected  first  with 
the  Missouri  and  afterward  with  the  German  Synod  of 
Iowa,  but  also  freely  criticising  the  tendencies  which  they 
encountered,  and  chronicling  the  progress  which  conserva- 
tive principles  were  making.  Even  though  this  journal 
sometimes  was  misled  in  its  polemics,  and  fell  into  error 
from  the  natural  tendency  of  those  imperfectly  acquainted 
with  the  field  to  give  accurate  reports,  it  could  not  fail  to 
influence  the  progress  of  events  in  this  country,  while  it 
brought  material  support  from  Germany  for  the  destitute 
points  in  the  far  West.  One  of  the  prominent  features  of 
the  journal  before  the  separation  between  Lohe  and  the 
Missouri  Synod  was  the  attention  paid  to  the  missions 
among  North  American  Indians  that  the  Missouri  Synod 
had  established  or  acquired  in  Michigan  at  Frankenmut, 
Siboying,  and  Bethany,  where  Rev.  August  Cramer  was 
the  chief  missionary.  It  was  unfortunate  that  doctrinal 
dissensions  between  the  founders  of  the  Michigan  and 
Missouri  synods  interfered  with  unity  of  action  in  their 
missionary  endeavors  among  the  heathen,  and  that  there 
was  further  embarrassment  by  the  subsequent  aHenation 
of  Lohe. 

As  the  conservative  wing  of  the  General  Synod  grew 
in  strength  and  decision,  the  prospects  of  drawing  into  it 
a  large  portion  of  the  independent  synods  grew  brighter. 

1  Of  this  Dr.  A.  Spaeth  has  given  an  illustration  in  his  sketch  of  Dr. 
Krauth,  Jr.,  "  Lutheran  Church  Review." 


420  THE   LUTHERANS.  [CuAr.  xxiv. 

The  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  sent  more  of  its  students 
to  Gettysburg.  In  1850  it  transferred  to  Pennsylvania 
College  its  interests  in  Franklin  College  at  Lancaster,  thus 
founding  a  professorship  the  nomination  of  whose  incum- 
bent was  guaranteed  it.  The  Lutheran  trustees  of  Frank- 
lin College,  nearly  all  of  whom  were  from  the  ministerium, 
were  added  to  the  board  of  Pennsylvania  College.  Dr. 
F.  A.  Muhlenberg,  a  great-grandson  of  the  patriarch, 
filled  this  chair  with  distinguished  ability  from  1850  to 
1867.  In  1848  the  proposition  of  endowing  a  German 
professorship  of  theology  in  the  seminary  at  Gettysburg 
was  made.  The  next  year  it  was  accepted,  and  Dr.  C.  F. 
Demme  nominated  as  professor.  Upon  his  declinature 
the  ministerium  in  1852  undertook  to  endow  a  German 
professorship  in  Pennsylvania  College.  Dr.  W.  J.  Mann 
was  elected  in  1854  to  the  professorship,  and,  upon  his 
declinature,  Dr.  C.  F.  Schaeffer,  who  was  also  assigned 
duties  as  German  professor  of  theology  in  the  seminary, 
and  was  formally  inducted  into  office  in  April,  1856. 

At  the  opening  of  the  sessions  of  the  General  Synod  at 
Charleston,  S.  C,  in  1850,  the  retiring  president,  Dr.  C. 
P.  Krauth,  Sr.,  preached  a  sermon  that  gave  no  uncertain 
sound.      It  began  with  the  sentence : 

"  The  time  has  perhaps  arrived  in  which  it  becomes  the 
duty  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  the  United  States  to  ex- 
amine its  position  and  to  determine  its  future  course." 

The  sermon  is  a  plea  for  a  higher  regard  for  the  chief 
symbol  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  the  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion, and  for  a  more  rigid  enforcement  of  the  acceptance 
of  its  doctrines.  It  led  the  way  toward  the  advance  which 
was  subsequently  made.  Translated  into  German,  it  was 
repubhshed  in  Rudelbach  and  Guericke's  "  Quarterly," 
and  awakened  interest  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean. ^ 

i  The  original  was  published  in  "  Evangelical  Review,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  I  sqq. 


PENNSYLVANIA    RETURNS.  421 

The  year  1853  marks  a  very  strong  movement,  that 
promised  to  make  the  body  organized  a  third  of  a  century 
before  more  of  a  General  Synod  than  it  had  ever  been  be- 
fore. The  confessional,  tendency  seems  to  be  breaking 
down  all  obstacles  and  sweeping  everything  before  it. 
When  it  met  at  Winchester,  Va.,  the  Ministerium  of  Penn- 
sylvania, the  Synod  of  Northern  Illinois,  the  Pittsburg 
Synod,  and  the  Synod  of  Texas  applied  for  admission. 

The  action  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  had  not 
been  taken  without  a  considerable  struggle.  The  clerical 
vote  had  been  thirty-seven  for  entrance,  and  fourteen 
against  it ;  but  the  lay  delegates  were  almost  evenly 
divided,  fifteen  voting  for  the  General  Synod,  and  fourteen 
against  it.  The  resolutions  determining  the  application 
became  very  important  eleven  years  later.     They  are : 

Resolved,  i.  That  this  synod  renew  again  its  active  connection  with  the 
so-called  Evangelical  Lutheran  General  Synod  of  the  United  States  of  North 
America,  approving  of  the  principles  laid  down  in  its  constitution  for  the 
government  of  the  several  Evangelical  Lutheran  Synods  of  which  it  is  com- 
posed, and  in  regard  to  their  relation  to  each  other,  and  their  mutual  active 
operations. 

2.  That  this  synod  regards  the  General  Synod  as  an  association  of  Evan- 
gelical Lutheran  synods,  entertaining  the  same  views  of  the  fundamental 
doctrines  of  the  gospel,  as  these  are  expressed  in  the  confessional  writings  of 
our  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  and  especially  in  the  Unaltered  Augsburg 
Confession,  and  that  we  advert  to  the  fact  that  the  General  Synod  is  denied 
the  right  by  its  constitution  of  making  any  innovations  or  alterations  of  this 
faith.      See  Article  3,  Section  2,  ^  3. 

3.  That  this  synod,  in  its  union  with  the  General  Synod,  retains  its  consti- 
tution and  form  of  government,  and  also  the  right  to  regulate  its  own  internal 
affairs,  as  previous  and  heretofore, 

4.  That  we  neither  intend,  nor  ever  expect,  that  the  principles  which  have 
hitherto  governed  our  synod  in  respect  to  church  doctrine  and  church  life 
shall  suffer  any  change  whatever  by  our  connection  with  the  General  Synod ; 
but  that,  should  the  General  Synod  violate  its  constitution,  and  require  of 
our  synod,  or  of  any.  synod,  as  a  condition  of  admission  or  continuance  of 
membership,  assent  to  anything  conflicting  with  the  old  and  long-established 
faith  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  then  our  delegates  are  hereby  re- 
quired to  protest  against  such  action,  to  withdraw  from  its  sessions,  and  to 
report  to  this  body. 


422  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxiv. 

5.  That  we  again  earnestly  request  the  Synod  of  Ohio,  and  all  other  Evan- 
gelical Lutheran  synods  that  are  not  yet  connected  with  the  General  Synod, 
to  join  us  in  uniting  with  it  on  the  same  principles,  so  that  the  individual 
parts  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  may  labor  unitedly  and  more  effi- 
ciently for  the  general  welfare  of  the  whole  church. 

The  form  of  the  confessional  subscription  of  the  minis- 
terium  was  discussed  at  the  same  meeting  in  a  paper  pre- 
pared, according  to  appointment,  by  Dr.  C.  F.  Schaeffer.^ 
The  resolution  with  which  it  closed  was  deemed  too  rigid, 
and  a  substitute  offered  by  Dr.  W.  J.  Mann  was  adopted : 

Whereas  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  has,  of  late,  arrived  at  clearer 
views  of  its  doctrinal  and  other  distinctive  features ;  and  whereas  we  are 
justified  in  expecting  that  both  the  internal  and  external  welfare  of  our  church 
will  be  thereby  essentially  promoted ;  and  whereas  we  recognize  the  impor- 
tance of  an  historico-confessional  basis  for  the  church ;   therefore.  Resolved: 

{a)  That  we  also,  ii^  common  with  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  of 
our  fathers,  acknowledge  the  collective  body  of  the  symbolical  books  as  the 
historico-confessional  writings  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  and  that 
we  also,  like  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  of  former  times,  accord  to 
the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  and  Luther's  Small  Catechism  an  espe- 
cial importance  among  our  symbolical  books  generally. 

{b)  That  we  enjoin  it  upon  all  the  ministers  and  candidates  of  our  church, 
as  their  duty,  to  make  themselves  better  and  more  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  these  venerable  documents  of  the  faith  of  our  fathers  than  has  hitherto 
been  the  case  with  many. 

(<-)  That  it  is  not  by  any  means  our  intention  thereby  to  diminish  the  ab- 
solute authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  much  rather  to  place  them  in  the 
clearest  light  possible,  and  that  we  by  no  means  design  through  these  symbols 
to  place  constraint  upon  the  consciences  of  any,  but  much  rather,  through 
them  to  bind  the  conscience  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  as  the  divine  source  of 
truth. 

Such  was  the  confessional  basis  which  the  Ministerium 
of  Pennsylvania  placed  upon  record  in  entering  the  Gen- 
eral Synod,  and  against  which  no  protest  was  heard  upon 
its  admission. 

A  similar  conflict  had  occurred  in  the  Pittsburg  Synod, 
where  the  vote  for  union  with  the  General  Synod  had 
stood:   for  Union:   clerical    10,  lay  7;   against:  clerical  9, 

^  See  "  Evangelical  Review,"  vol.  v.,  pp.  189-213. 


CHARLES  F.   SCIIAEFFER.  423 

lay  3.  A  resolution  was  added  referring  to  the  constitu- 
tional inability  of  the  General  Synod  to  make  any  altera- 
tion in  matters  pertaining  to  the  faith  of  the  church,  and 
therefore  the  want  of  authority  to  depart  from  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Augsburg  Confession. 

At  this  meeting  of  the  General  Synod,  the  address  before 
the  Historical  Society  by  Dr.  C.  F.  Schaeffer  was  a  further 
development  of  the  principles  that  had  been  so  prominently 
set  forth  at  Charleston,  S.  C,  by  Dr.  C  P.  Krauth,  Sr. 
To  one  to-day  reading  this  paper  on  ''  The  Present  Tran- 
sition State  of  the  Church,"  it  cannot  but  seem  remarkable 
that  at  the  time  it  was  deemed  inadvisable  to  print  it. 
Just  a  quarter  of  a  century  later,  two  manuscript  copies 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  editors  of  the  two  Lutheran  re- 
views, and  narrowly  escaped  simultaneous  publication  at 
Philadelphia  and  Gettysburg.^  It  is  a  sober  review,  and 
a  clear  and  candid  examination  of  the  progress  that  had 
been  made  on  the  questions  of  language,  education,  be- 
nevolent operations,  and  doctrines  and  religious  usages. 
The  future  could  scarcely  have  been  forecast  with  greater 
accuracy  if  he  had  been  endowed  with  the  gift  of  proph- 
ecy, when  he  closed  with  the  words :  "  The  future  histo- 
rian of  the  church  will,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  be  able 
with  truth  to  speak  of  such  numbers,  such  learning,  such 
piety,  such  educational  and  missionary  efforts,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  EvangeHcal  Lutheran  Church  in  America, 
as  now  scarcely  exist  in  our  imagination.  Then  will  the 
church  accomplish  her  great  mission,  and  then  will  glory 
be  given  to  *  God  in  the  highest.'  " 

Learning  and  piety  cannot  be  reckoned  in  statistics ; 
but  where  there  were  200,000  communicants  then,  there 
are  1,200,000  now. 

Those  within  the  General  Synod  who  antagonized  the 

The  paper  is  found  in  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  vii.,  pp.  185  sqq. 


424  ^^^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxiv. 

confessional  position  were  not  silenced  by  the  growing- 
strength  of  the  conservatives.  They  were  all  the  more 
active  and  aggressive.  Dr.  Benjamin  Kurtz,  the  editor 
of  the  "  Lutheran  Observer,"  filled  that  journal  weekly 
with  attacks  upon  the  conservative  position,  arraigning 
the  Lutheran  Confessions,  even  the  Augsburg  Confession, 
for  their  alleged  remnants  of  Roman  error,  and  denounc- 
ing all  liturgical  worship  as  formalism.  Dr.  Passavant's 
*'  Missionary,"  published  at  Pittsburg,  grew  into  a  large 
weekly,  and  became  the  able  organ  of  the  conservatives, 
especially  as  it  was  enriched  by  the  contributions  of  Dr. 
C.  P.  Krauth,  Jr. 

Suddenly,  in  1855,  there  came  through  the  mails  to 
many  of  the  pastors  a  small  pamphlet  called  "  Definite 
Sy nodical  Platform."  The  introductory  note  stated  that 
it  was  prepared  by  consultation  and  co5peration  of  minis- 
ters belonging  to  difi'erent  eastern  and  western  synods  of 
the  General  Synod.  It  claimed  to  accord  with  the  Gen- 
eral Synod's  basis,  since  it  did  not  add  a  single  sentence 
to  the  Augsburg  Confession,  and  did  not  omit  *'  anything 
that  has  the  least  pretension  to  be  considered  '  a  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  Scripture.'  "  It  affirmed  that  Luther 
and  his  associates  changed  their  opinions  on  subjects 
treated  in  the  Augsburg  Confession,  and  ''  seven  years 
later  taught  purer  views  in  the  Smalcald  Articles."  It 
professed  to  specify  the  doctrines  of  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession that  should  be  retained,  and  those  which  should  be 
rejected.  Accordingly  it  formally  repudiated  the  follow- 
ing errors  which  it  claimed  were  in  the  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion, viz.,  the  approval  of  the  ceremonies  of  the  mass, 
private  confession  and  absolution,  denial  of  a  divine  obli- 
gation of  a  Christian  Sabbath,  baptismal  regeneration,  and 
the  real  presence  of  the  body  and  blood  of  the  Saviour  in 
the  eucharist 


THE  DEFINITE   PIATFORM.  425 

Some  of  these  charges  could  have  no  weight  among  an 
educated  ministry.  The  Augsburg  Confession,  e.g.,  refers 
to  the  Lord's  Supper  by  the  name  '*  mass,"  without  in  any 
way  compromising  the  abhorrence  of  its  adherents  toward 
*'  the  mass  "  as  understood  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
To  the  present  day  Scandinavian  Lutherans  designate 
their  chief  service  on  the  Lord's  Day  as  *'  the  mass."  But 
it  was  not  so  easy  a  matter  to  dissipate  the  prejudices  of 
people  to  whom  such  words  of  the  confession  as  these 
were  read  :  ''  Ours  are  falsely  accused  of  abolishing  the 
ceremonies  of  the  mass."  Between  the  ''private" — that 
is,  individual — ''confession"  of  the  Lutheran,  which  is  a 
voluntary  privilege  of  a  sin-burdened  conscience,  and  the 
private,  or  enforced,  confession  of  the  Romanist,  demanded 
as  a  condition  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  there  is  all  the 
difference  in  the  world.  Nowhere  is  this  difference  more 
clearly  explained  than  in  the  Lutheran  confessions.  But 
the  similarity  of  terms  was  employed  to  excite  a  storm  of 
prejudice. 

It  was  advised  that  the  "  Platform  "  be  adopted  by  the 
synods  in  the  General  Synod,  with  the  resolution  "  that 
we  will  not  receive  into  our  synod  any  minister  who  will 
not  adopt  this  '  Platform.'  "  The  effect  would  have  been 
to  have  excluded  from  the  General  Synod  all  who  denied 
that  the  Augsburg  Confession  taught  the  alleged  errors. 

The  "  Definite  Platform  "  erased  the  ''descensus  "  from 
the  Apostles'  Creed ;  the  clause  that  regeneration  is  "  by 
baptism  and  the  Holy  Ghost,"  from  Art.  II.  of  the  Augs- 
burg Confession  ;  the  declaration  that  it  is  lawful  to  use  the 
ministry  of  evil  men,  from  Art.  VIII.  ;  and  the  statement 
that  the  grace  of  God  is  offered  in  baptism,  from  Art.  IX. 
Art.  X.  was  amended  to  read :  "  In  regard  to  the  Lord's 
Supper,  they  teach  that  Christ  is  present  with  communi- 
cants under  the  emblems  of  bread  and  wine."     Art.  XI. 


426  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxiv. 

was  erased.  Art.  XII.  had  an  addition  made  to  the  title, 
and  read,  "  Of  Repentance  (after  backsliding)."  We  will 
not  go  further  in  the  enumeration.  In  all  the  articles  the 
condemnatory  sections  are  rejected.  Even  the  deniers  of 
the  Trinity  are  not  condemned.  The  second  part  of  the 
''  Platform  "  was  a  polemic  upon  the  "  Symbolic  Errors 
Rejected."  Again  the  changes  were  rung  upon  "the 
ceremonies  of  the  mass,"  ''exorcism,"  ''private  confes- 
sion," etc.  Even  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  the  coniimi- 
nicatio  idioniatitin  was  interpreted  as  teaching  that  "  the 
Divinity  was  conceived  and  brought  forth  by  the  frail 
mortal,  the  Virgin  Mary  " — an  error  which  Luther  and 
the  Lutheran  confessions  expressly  repudiate. 

The  effect  of  the  publication  was  far  different  from  what 
was  anticipated.  It  was  indorsed  by  one  of  the  smaller 
synods  in  Ohio,  but  everywhere  else  it  aroused  intense 
indignation,  as  a  misrepresentation  and  detraction  of  the 
Lutheran  Church.  In  vain  did  the  professor  of  theology 
at  Gettysburg  acknowledge  that  the  anonymous  pubHca- 
tion  came  from  his  hand.  He  soon  found  that  it  was 
the  great  mistake  of  his  life.  Dr.  Mann  lifted  the  con- 
troversy above  that  of  the  weekly  paper  by  publishing 
his  book  entitled  "A  Plea  for  the  Augsburg  Confession." 
The  author  of  the  platform  replied  in  "  Lutheran  Sym- 
bols, or  American  Lutheranism  Indicated,"  in  which  he 
endeavored  to  prove  that  the  "  Definite  Platform  "  repre- 
sented the  historical  position  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in 
America.  Dr.  Mann  answered  in  an  historical  monograph 
of  permanent  value,  "  Lutheranism  in  America,"  the  titles 
of  the  two  books  correctly  indicating  the  different  con- 
ceptions of  the  two  writers  concerning  the  work  and  future 
mission  of  Lutherans  in  this  country.  Rev.  J.  N.  Hoffman 
also  entered  into  the  controversy  with  his  little  book 
"The  Broken  Platform."      His  associate  in  Reading,  Dr. 


CHARLES  PORTERFIELD  KRAUTH,  427 

J.  A.  Brown,  followed  in  1857  with  ''  The  New  Theology," 
and  as  a  director  of  the  Theological  Seminary  preferred 
charges  of  departure  from  his  professional  obligation 
against  the  author  of  the  **  Platform."  These  proceed- 
ings were  arrested  by  the  intervention  of  Dr.  Krauth,  Jr., 
who  did  not  deem  his  former  instructor's  course  such  as 
to  warrant  action. 

Meanwhile,  in  April,  1856,  Dr.  C.  F.  Schaeffer  had  en- 
tered upon  his  duties  as  professor  in  the  seminary  and 
college  at  Gettysburg.  In  his  inaugural  he  took  an  ad- 
vanced confessional  position.  Two  systems  of  theology 
were  taught  in  the  same  seminary,  directly  antagonistic 
on  the  points  of  controversy.  The  professors  were 
brothers-in-law,  and  the  personal  factor  which  character- 
ized the  discussions  in  the  papers  was  carefully  excluded 
from  the  seminary.  The  students  were  soon  divided,  but 
the  gain  was  constantly  upon  the  conservative  side. 

One  of  the  most  important  papers  called  forth  by  the 
publication  of  the  ''  Definite  Platform  "  was  the  declaration 
made  by  the  Pittsburg  Synod  at  its  meeting  at  Zelien- 
ople,  Pa.,  in  1856.  It  was  prepared  by  Dr.  C.  P.  Krauth, 
Jr.,  unanimously  adopted,  and  afterward  became  the  basis 
of  a  declaration  by  the  General  Synod.  Of  this  *'  Decla- 
ration "  the  most  significant  statements  are  the  following: 

That  while  the  basis  of  our  General  Synod  has  allowed  of  diversity  in  re- 
gard to  some  parts  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  that  basis  never  was  de- 
signed to  imply  the  right  to  alter,  amend,  or  curtail  the  confession  itself. 

That  while  this  synod,  resting  on  the  Word  of  God  as  the  sole  authority 
in  matters  of  faith,  on  its  infallible  warrant  rejects  the  Romish  doctrine  of 
the  real  presence  or  transubstantiation,  and  with  it  the  doctrine  of  consub- 
stantiation ;  rejects  the  mass,  and  all  ceremonies  distinctive  of  the  mass ; 
denies  any  power  in  the  sacrament  as  an  opus  operatum,  or  that  the  blessings 
of  baptism  and  of  the  Lord's  Supper  can  be  received  without  faith ;  rejects 
auricular  confession  and  priestly  absolution  ;  holds  that  there  is  no  priesthood 
on  earth  except  that  of  all  believers,  and  that  God  only  can  forgive  sins  ;  and 
maintains  the  sacred  obligation  of  the  Lord's  Day ;  and  while  we  would  with 


42  8  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxiv. 

our  whole  heart  reject  any  part  of  any  confession  which  taught  doctrines  in 
conflict  with  this  our  testimony,  nevertheless,  before  God  and  his  church,  we 
declare  that,  in  our  judgment,  the  Augsburg  Confession,  properly  interpreted, 
is  in  perfect  consistence  with  this  our  testimony — and  with  Holy  Scripture 
as  regards  the  errors  specified. 

That  while  we  do  not  wish  to  conceal  the  fact  that  some  parts  of  the  doc- 
trine of  our  confession  in  regard  to  the  sacraments  are  received  in  different 
degrees  by  different  brethren,  yet  that  even  in  these  points,  wherein  we,  as 
brethren  in  Christ,  agree  to  differ  till  the  Holy  Ghost  shall  make  us  see  eye 
to  eye,  the  differences  are  not  such  as  to  destroy  the  foundation  of  faith,  our 
unity  in  labor,  our  mutual  conhdence,  and  our  tender  love. 

That  if  we  have  indulged  harsh  thoughts  and  groundless  suspicions,  if  we 
have  without  reason  criminated  and  recriminated,  we  here  humbly  confess 
our  fault  before  our  adorable  Redeemer,  beseeching  pardon  of  him  and  of 
each  other,  and  covenant  anew  with  him  and  with  each  other,  to  know  noth- 
ing among  men  but  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified — acknowledging  him  as 
our  only  Master,  and  regarding  all  who  are  in  the  living  unity  of  faith  with 
him  as  beloved  brethren. 

Nor  was  the  discussion  confined  to  the  General  Synod. 
The  other  Lutheran  bodies  in  America  were  all  disturbed 
by  the  charges  made  against  the  Augsburg  Confession, 
and  the  proposition  to  mutilate  and  amend  it.  Among 
other  indications  of  this  general  interest  were  four  ''  Free 
Evangelical  Lutheran  Conferences,"  held  from  1856  to 
1859,  for  the  discussion  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  ar- 
ticle by  article.  The  participants  were  members  of  the 
synods  of  Missouri,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York. 
In  the  first  three,  held  at  Columbus,  Pittsburg,  and  Cleve- 
land, Professor  VValther  was  the  chief  speaker. 

As  the  time  for  the  meeting  of  the  General  Synod  in 
1857  approached.  Dr.  C.  P.  Krauth,  Jr.,  published  a  series 
of  articles  in  **  The  Missionary,"  maintaining  the  great 
importance  of  the  General  Synod,  and  urging  a  clearer 
statement  of  its  doctrinal  basis.  Never  was  the  cause  of 
the  General  Synod  pleaded  with  more  eloquence.  He 
asserted  that  it  was  the  hope  of  the  Lutheran  Church  of  this 
country,  "  the  offspring  of  a  reviving  Lutheranism,  born 
in  the  dawn  that  followed  the  night  which  fell  upon  our 


THE    GENERAL   SYNOD'S  BASIS.  429 

church  in  this  land,  when  the  patriarchal  luminaries  of 
her  early  history  had  set  on  earth,  to  rise  in  heaven."  Its 
formation  was  a  great  act  of  faith.  When  it  became  com- 
pletely organized,  "  it  was  the  only  voluntary  body  on 
earth  pretending  to  embrace  a  nation  as  its  territory,  and 
bearing  a  Lutheran  name,  in  which  the  fundamental  doc- 
trines of  Lutheranism  were  the  basis  of  union."  "  Heaven 
pity  the  fate  of  the  man  who  looks  upon  the  General 
Synod  as  having  been  a  curse  to  the  church,  or  an  ineffi- 
cient worker  in  it — who  imagines  that  the  Lutheran  Church 
would  be  stronger  if  the  General  Synod  were  weaker."^ 

In  advocacy  of  the  necessity  incumbent  on  the  General 
Synod  to  assert  her  purpose  to  maintain  her  original  doc- 
trinal position.  Dr.  Krauth  was  not  yet  ready  to  recom- 
mend the  indorsement  of  any  of  the  symbolical  books 
beyond  the  Augsburg  Confession.  The  distinctions 
since  made  by  advocates  of  the  General  Synod  against 
more  rigidly  confessional  bodies  owe  their  origin  largely 
to  these  articles  of  Dr.  Krauth,  in  which  he  speaks  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession  as  "  the  symbol  of  Lutheran  cath- 
olicity ;  all  other  distinctive  portions  of  the  '  Book  of 
Concord  '  are  symbols  of  Lutheran  particularity,  creeds 
of  Lutheran  churches,  but  not,  in  an  undisputed  sense, 
creeds  of  the  Lutheran  Church."  The  acceptance  of  the 
other  confessions  is  within  the  liberty  of  Lutherans,  but 
the  refusal  to  accept  them  is  not  a  necessity.  The  ac- 
ceptance of  the  doctrinal  articles  implies  the  acceptance 
of  the  articles  on  abuses.  For  brevity's  sake  they  are 
not  specified,  because  the  errors  enumerated  are  rejected 
by  all  Protestants.  The  word  ''  fundamental  "  in  the  con- 
fessional basis  he  interpreted  as  that  which  is  fundamen- 
tal to  Lutheranism,  i.e.,  to  that  system  of  Christianity  of 
which  the  Augustana  is  the  confession.      He  was  satisfied 

>  "  The  Missionary,"  April  30,  1857. 


430  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxiv. 

even  with  the  statement  that  the  fundamental  doctrines 
were  taught  "  in  a  manner  substantiallycorrect,"  since  one 
who  beHeves  that  they  are  taught  in  a  manner  absohitely 
correct  holds,  of  course,  that  the  manner  is  also  substan- 
tially correct.  He  defended  the  reservation  of  the  General 
Synod  in  not  deciding  the  question  whether  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  as  to  its  very  letter,  were  or  were  not  correct. 
He  terms  the  extremes  between  which  the  General  Synod 
stood  as  symbololatry  and  schism. 

Standing,  therefore,  on  the  old  formula  of  the  General 
Synod,  he  urged  that  the  ambiguities  connected  with  it 
rendered  a  further  definition  desirable.  It  should  make 
it  clear  that  no  ecclesiastical  body  should  be  recognized  as 
Protestant,  much  less  as  Lutheran,  which  does  not  beheve 
the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  to  be  the 
Word  of  God.  It  should  recognize  no  body  as  Lutheran 
which  does  not  make  the  Augsburg  Confession,  unmuti- 
lated  and  unchanged,  the  subject,  or  part  of  the  subject, 
of  its  confessional  affirmation.  In  indorsing  the  doctrinal 
articles,  the  statement  should  be  made  that  the  other  parts 
of  the  confession  are  not  rejected.  A  clear  statement 
should  also  be  made  of  what  doctrines  are  ''  fundamental 
as  terms  of  admission  to  our  ministry  and  of  the  union 
of  synods  with  her."  In  advocating  this,  he  classifies 
the  doctrines  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  as  comprising: 
I.  Those  fundamental  to  Christianity,  confessed  in  Arts. 
I.,  III.,  VIII.,  XVI.,  XVII.,  and  XIX.  2.  Those  funda- 
mental to  Protestant  Christianity,  as  confessed  by  all  the 
Evangelical  Churches  of  the  Reformation  :  Arts.  II.,  IV., V., 
VI.,  VIL,  XIII.,  XIV.,  XV.,  XVIII.,  and  XXI.  3.  Those 
in  which  there  seems  to  be  a  difference  between  the 
Lutherans  and  the  Reformed,  but  in  fact  there  is  none : 
Arts.  IX.,  XL,  and  XX.  4.  Doctrines  peculiar  to  the 
Evangelical    Lutheran    Church :    Arts.   X.   and   XII.     Of 


AN  EDUCATIONAL   PROCESS.  43  I 

these,  Art.  XII.  "  has  a  few  words  in  which  the  confession 
deviates  from  the  views  of  some  Evangelical  Christians, 
but  on  which  our  General  Synod  would  stand  with  the 
Confession."  Art.  X.  is  the  only  one  in  which  "  there  is 
a  confessed  distinction  between  the  Lutheran  Church  and 
the  other  churches  of  the  Reformation."  The  unity  on 
this  article,  he  argues,  is  found  in  what  it  implies  rather 
than  in  what  it  expresses,  viz.,  in  the  divine  appoint- 
ment and  perpetual  obligation  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  the 
rejection  of  transubstantiation  and  the  doctrine  of  the 
mass,  the  administration  in  both  kinds,  and  the  necessity 
of  a  living  faith  for  enjoying  its  blessings.  "  Securing 
these  points,  let  the  General  Synod  allow  perfect  freedom, 
as  she  has  hitherto  done,  to  reject  or  receive  the  rest  of 
the  article." 

The  whole  argument  is  intended  to  show  that  any  re- 
vision or  amendment  of  the  confession  can  accomplish 
nothing,  and  that  if  the  Lutheran  Church  cannot  unite  on 
the  Augsburg  Confession,  it  cannot  unite  on  anything.^ 

Deep  as  was  the  impression  made  by  the  articles,  and 
especially  by  detached  portions  of  the  argument,  there 
was  no  direct  effect  produced  upon  the  meeting  of  the 
General  Synod.  The  conviction  was  strengthened  that 
no  countenance  must  be  given  any  effort  to  amend  the 
confession,  but  even  the  most  conservative  wxre  content 
to  await  the  course  of  events  before  taking  a  forward 
move.  The  argument  undoubtedly  understated  the  posi- 
tion occupied  by  the  conservatives.  It  is  a  brilliant  ex- 
ample of  the  educational  process  by  which  the  ablest  of 
the  theologians  of  the  Lutheran  Church  of  America  was 
growing  into  far  more  decided  convictions,  and  was  rising 
to  a  much  higher  standard.  Dr.  Krauth  had  not  yet  re- 
turned to  the  position  of  Muhlenberg  and  his  associates. 

1  "The  Missionary,"  May  7,  14,  1857. 


432  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxiv. 

His  standard  then  was  as  yet  that  of  the  best  of  Muhl- 
enberg's successors,  who  resisted  rationalism  and  stood 
firmly  for  Evangelical  Christianity,  but  who  had  not  been 
brought  to  the  full  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  that 
which  the  Lutheran  Church  insisted  on  maintaining  against 
the  opposition  of  those  forms  of  Christianity  with  which  it 
had  most  in  common. 

Among  the  movements  to  resist  the  confessional  tend- 
ency was  the  organization  in  1857  of  a  new  synod  in 
Maryland,  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  B.  Kurtz,  which 
took  the  name  of  the  Melanchthon  Synod,  and  justified 
its  occupation  of  the  territory  of  the  Maryland  Synod 
upon  the  principle  of  "  elective  affinity."  This  synod 
made  the  following  *'  Declaration  of  Faith,"  upon  the  re- 
port of  a  committee  of  which  Dr.  B.  Kurtz  was  chairman : 

I.  We  believe  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  to  be  the 
Word  of  God,  and  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 

II.  We  believe  that  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Word  of  God  are 
taught  in  a  manner  substantially  correct  in  the  doctrinal  articles  of  the  Augs- 
burg Confession : 

I.  The  divine  inspiration,  authority,  and  sufficiency  of  the  Holy  Script- 
ures. 1  2.  The  unity  of  the  Godhead  and  the  trinity  of  Persons  therein.  3. 
The  deity  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  4.  The  utter  depravity  of  human  nature 
in  consequence  of  the  fall.  5.  The  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  his 
work  of  atonement  for  sinners  of  mankind.  6.  The  necessity  of  repentance 
and  faith.  7.  The  justification  of  a  sinner  by  faith  alone.  8.  The  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  conversion  and  sanctification  of  the  sinner.  9.  The 
right  and  duty  of  private  judgment  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Holy  Script- 
ures. 10.  The  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  the 
judgment  of  the  world  by  Jesus  Christ,  with  the  eternal  blessedness  of  the 
righteous  and  the  eternal  punishment  of  the  wicked.  II.  The  divine  insti- 
tution and  perpetuity  of  the  Christian  ministry,  and  the  ordinances  of  baptism 
and  the  Lord's  Supper.  2 

1  Important  as  this  article  is,  the  Augsburg  Confession  took  it  for  granted, 
and  is  silent  on  the  subject.  The  Formula  of  Concord  alone  among  the 
Lutheran  confessions  has  stated  it. 

2  These  are  the  articles  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  slightly  amended. 
The  changes  are  that  No.  2  of  the  Alliance  articles  is  made  No.  9  in  those 


THE   MELANCHTHON  SYNOD.  433 

But  while  we  thus  publicly  avow  and  declare  our  convictions  in  the  sub- 
stantial correctness  of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Augsburg  Confession, 
we  owe  it  to  ourselves  and  to  the  cause  of  evangelical  truth  to  disavow  and 
repudiate  certain  errors  which  are  said  by  some  to  be  contained  in  said  con- 
fession:  I.  The  approval  of  the  ceremonies  of  the  mass;  2.  Private  con- 
fession and  absolution ;  3.  Denial  of  the  divine  obligation  of  the  Christian 
Sabbath ;  4.  Baptismal  regeneration ;  and  5.  The  real  presence  of  the  body 
and  blood  of  the  Saviour  in  the  eucharist.  With  these  exceptions,  whether 
found  in  the  confession  or  not,  we  believe  and  retain  the  entire  Augsburg 
Confession,  with  all  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Reformation. 

The  most  significant  act  of  the  meeting  of  the  General 
Synod  at  Pittsburg  in  1859  was  the  admission  of  the 
Melanchthon  Synod  by  a  series  of  resolutions  offered  by 
Dr.  Krauth,  Jr.,  in  which,  however,  the  synod  is  very 
mildly  requested  to  erase  from  its  **  Declaration  "  its  im- 
plied charges  against  the  Augsburg  Confession.  The  vote 
admitting  it  stood  ninety-eight  to  twenty-six,  the  entire 
delegation  from  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  with  the 
Scandinavian  delegates,  Esbjorn,  Hasselquist,  and  Klove, 
being  recorded  in  the  negative.  A  large  portion  of  the 
conservatives,  who  would  otherwise  have  voted  against  the 
admission,  felt  that  their  cause  was  secure  in  the  hands  of 
the  mover  of  the  resolutions,  and  that  they  had  gained  a 
victory  by  forcing  the  synod  to  terms  which  involved  the 
rejection  of  its  former  attitude  to  the  confession.^  Thus 
was  foreshadowed  the  action  which  was  to  be  taken  in  the 
admission  of  the  Franckean  Synod  at  York  in  1864.  The 
dissatisfaction  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  was 
openly  expressed  at  its  next  meeting,  both  in  the  report 

of  the  Melanchthon  Synod  ;  "  his  mediatorial  intercession  and  reign  "  is  erased 
from  No.  5  ;  Nos.  3  and  6  in  the  Melanchthon  articles  are  new,  and  there  is  a 
verbal  change,  probably  for  brevity's  sake,  in  the  last  article. 

1  See  Dr.  Krauth's  explanation  in  "  Proceedings  of  First  Lutheran  Diet" 
(1^77))  P-  142.  "  It  was  the  thoroughgoing  opposition  which  he  had  felt 
and  shown  to  the  admission  of  the  Melanchthon  Synod  which  made  him  the 
proper  person  to  offer  this  resolution." 


434  ^^-^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxiv. 

of  its  president  (Dr.  Welden)  and  in  that  of  the  delegates 
to  the  General  Synod. 

Beneath  all  these  agitations  the  external  activity  of  the 
church  was  manifesting  much  progress.  At  Gettysburg 
the  college  was  under  the  presidency,  beginning  with 
1850,  of  Dr.  H.  L.  Baugher.  It  was  strengthened  by  the 
addition  of  the  two  professorships  of  the  Ministerium  of 
Pennsylvania.  In  the  South,  Roanoke  College,  founded 
in  1853,  is  a  monument  to  the  earnestness  and  untiring 
zeal  of  its  first  president,  Dr.  D.  F.  Bittle  (born  181 1, 
died  1876).  North  Carolina  College,  Mount  Pleasant, 
N.  C,  under  the  presidency  of  his  brother.  Dr.  D.  H.  Bittle, 
had  made  a  promising  beginning  in  1858,  when  it  was 
overtaken  by  the  calamities  of  the  Civil  War.  In  1858 
Dr.  T.  Stork  had  been  called  from  Philadelphia  to  the 
presidency  of  the  new  college  at  Newberry,  S.  C.  Dr. 
J.  A.  Brown  had  become  professor  of  theology,  succeed- 
ing Dr.  L.  Eichelberger,  who  had  retired,  the  seminary 
having  been  removed  from  its  former  abode  at  Lexing- 
ton, S.  C.  The  youthful  son  of  Dr.  Stork,  afterward 
Dr.  Charles  A.  Stork,  a  graduate  of  Williams  College, 
had  become  professor  of  Greek.  Hartwick  Seminary, 
New  York,  under  Dr.  G.  B.  Miller,  was  sending  forth  a 
small  but  valuable  addition  to  the  ministry.  Wittenberg 
College  and  Seminary  at  Springfield,  O.,  were  becoming 
aggressive  rivals  of  Gettysburg.  A  western  college  had 
been  established,  first  at  Hillsboro,  and,  after  its  incorpo- 
ration in  1852,  at  Springfield,  111.,  under  the  name  of  Illi- 
nois State  University.  Dr.  F.  Springer  was  its  first  presi- 
dent, succeeded  by  Dr.  S.  W.  Harkey,  and  in  1857  by 
Dr.  W.  M.  Reynolds.  It  included  a  theological  depart- 
ment, with  Dr.  Harkey  as  professor,  with  whom  Professor 
L.  P.  Esbjorn  was  afterward  associated  as  Scandinavian 
professor.      Still  farther  west,  Dr.  Reuben  Weiser  was  at- 


THE    COLLEGES.  435 

tempting  the  establishment  of  an  EngHsh  Lutheran  college 
in  Iowa. 

The  growing  conservatism  at  Gettysburg  had  probably 
much  to  do  with  the  founding  of  the  Missionary  Institute 
at  Selinsgrove,  Pa.,  by  Dr.  B.  Kurtz  in  1 85 8,  for  the  ed- 
ucation of  men  advanced  in  life,  for  whom  a  shortened 
course  was  provided.  Dr.  H.  Ziegler,  the  professor  of 
theology,  gradually  reached  a  very  decided  conservative 
and  confessional  position.  Dr.  P.  Born,  the  present  first 
professor  of  theology,  was  the  first  principal  of  the  classi- 
cal department.  At  AUentown,  Pa.,  the  Collegiate  Insti- 
tute was  under  joint  Lutheran  and  Reformed  control. 
Dr.  W.  M.  Reynolds  was  for  several  years  its  principal. 
The  feeling  was  growing  in  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania that  from  it  an  institution  for  that  synod  might 
develop,  as  was  afterward  the  case,  in  the  establishment 
of  Muhlenberg  College  (1867).  Synodical  academies  at 
Greensburg  and  Zelienople,  Pa.,  were  preparing  the  way 
for  a  college  in  the  Pittsburg  Synod. 

A  retrospect  will  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  the  multi- 
plication of  colleges  to  such  extent  was  in  advance  both 
of  the  call  and  of  the  necessities  of  the  church.  Three 
colleges  for  the  English-speaking  portion  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  during  this  period — one  East,  one  South,  one 
West — would  have  answered  all  demands.  Apart  from 
the  expense  involved,  it  was  impossible  to  secure  from  the 
Lutheran  people  a  sufficient  number  of  competent  scholars 
who  could  be  made  professors  in  the  true  sense  of  the 
term — men  who  could  rise,  whenever  necessary,  above 
mere  text-book  drill,  and  prove  themselves  thorough 
masters  of  their  departments,  and  who,  enthusiasts  in  de- 
votion to  their  particular  branches,  were  able  to  inspire 
others  with  their  own  enthusiasm.  In  most  of  these  feeble 
institutions,  teachers,  half  or  even  one  fourth  supported. 


436  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxiv. 

struggled  to  fill  two,  three,  or  even  four  departments ;  and 
a  mere  vague  and  superficial  idea  of  the  topics  hurried 
over  was  the  result.  Nothing  could  be  done  thoroughly. 
The  life  was  taken  out  of  the  instruction,  because  the 
teacher  could  not  live  in  the  branch  which  he  taught.  The 
local  advantage  was  therefore  more  than  balanced  by  the 
deterioration  in  the  quality  of  the  work  done.  The  min- 
istry, in  most  cases,  did  not  obtain  that  thorough  and 
many-sided  liberal  culture  which  a  college  course  was 
supposed  to  represent,  and  this  was  felt  also  in  their 
theological  training.  The  weakness  of  an  older  was  used 
as  an  argument  to  start  new  institutions,  content  to  ap- 
proach the  low  standard  of  those  v/hich  preceded.  The 
lack  of  intelligent  directors  was  as  lamentable  as  that  of  a 
well-equipped  faculty.  It  may  serve  as  a  partial  expla- 
nation of  the  confusion  that  prevailed  that  there  was  not 
a  single  professor  of  theology  in  the  English  seminaries 
in  the  North  who  had  obtained  the  liberal  training  of 
a  full  college  course,  except  the  professor  of  German 
theology  at  Gettysburg.  The  controversy  connected 
with  the  "  Definite  Platform,"  prepared  and  published 
under  a  supervision  characterized  by  the  same  defects, 
may  be  the  more  readily  understood  when  this  is  remem- 
bered. 

There  was  a  field  open  to  the  Lutheran  Church  which 
it  neglected  to  cultivate.  Its  colleges  might  have  exerted 
a  vast  influence  upon  the  country,  and  attracted  large 
support  from  the  general  public,  if,  instead  of  being  feeble 
imitations  of  the  American  colleges  around  them,  they 
had  been  modeled  after  the  best  German  gymnasiums, 
and,  in  their  management,  there  had  been  a  wise  combi- 
nation of  German  thoroughness  with  sympathy  for  Amer- 
ican institutions.  As  it  was,  German  sources  were  the 
very  last  to  be  consulted,  and  German  standards  the  very 


HEYER   IN  MINNESOTA.  437 

last  to  be  considered,  and  then  only  after  those  of  other 
than  German  origin  had  shown  their  appreciation  for 
them.  On  the  other  hand,  the  German-American  colleges 
in  the  West  were  too  exclusively  occupied  with  the  prep- 
aration of  candidates  for  the  ministry  to  give  the  neces- 
sary liberal  culture.  They  were  modeled  more  after  the 
preparatory  schools  for  missionary  seminaries  in  Germany 
than  after  those  which  trained  students  for  a  university 
course.  Their  professors  were  strangers  to  this  country, 
noticed  chiefly  the  weaker  sides  of  American  education 
and  American  religious  life,  and  were  unable  to  sufficiently 
appreciate  their  new  relations  to  adapt  the  instruction  to 
the  new  demands. 

The  missionary  work  was  being  energetically  conducted. 
In  1853  the  mission  in  India  had  grown  so  as  to  justify 
the  organization  of  the  Synod  of  India,  with  Father  Heyer 
as  its  president.  The  reports  to  the  General  Synod  in 
1869  indicate  the  increase  of  missionaries,  but,  as  might 
be  expected,  only  the  feeble  beginnings  of  the  communi- 
cant membership.  The  statistics  were :  missionaries,  10; 
communicants,  no;  catechists,  3;  colporteurs,  3;  schools, 
21  ;  teachers,  22  ;  scholars,  485  ;  natives  preparing  for  the 
ministry,  4. 

The  development  of  home  missions  was  encouraging. 
Between  1857  and  1859  the  General  Synod  sustained 
sixty-seven  missions,  while  some  of  the  district  synods,  as 
the  Ministeriums  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  and  the 
Pittsburg  and  Allegheny  Synods,  had  their  independent 
mission  work,  which  rivaled  that  of  the  general  body. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  pictures  presented  is  that  of 
the  aged  Father  Heyer,  who  could  not  rest  after  his  return 
from  India  in  1857,  but  proceeded  to  the  western  frontier, 
and  withstood  the  winters  of  Minnesota,  as  he  had  the 
torrid  heat  of  India.     He  was  sent  thither  by  the  General 


438  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxiv. 

Synod's  board,  and  was  further  aided  by  the  Ministerium 
of  Pennsylvania.  In  November,  1857,  he  made  St.  Paul 
his  home,  and  began  to  gather  together  the  scattered  Ger- 
mans. Those  discouraged  to-day  because  of  the  slowness 
of  the  Lutheran  Church  to  enter  the  field  may  be  encour- 
aged when  they  compare  his  reports  concerning  the  im- 
mense loss  occasioned  by  previous  delays,  and  the  oppor- 
tunity which  he  feared  had  been  lost,  with  those  collected 
by  Dr.  Carroll  concerning  the  present  strength  of  the  Lu- 
theran Church  in  the  twin  cities  of  Minnesota.  He  had 
to  solve  the  problem  of  the  erection  of  a  church  building 
as  the  center  for  his  work.  It  was  a  hard  struggle,  but 
he  was  equal  to  it.  His  desire  to  found  an  English  church 
at  St.  Paul  was  deferred.  Over  the  prairies  of  Minnesota 
he  went,  sometimes,  as  in  India,  in  a  primitive  ox-cart,  bap- 
tizing children,  preaching,  and  prospecting  for  places  in 
need  of  Lutheran  pastors,  until  at  length,  in  a  very  few 
years,  the  Synod  of  Minnesota  was  the  result. 

Considering  what  was  done  for  the  English  work  in 
the  Mississippi  Valley  during  the  decade  1850-60,  the  re- 
suits  at  the  present  are  disappointing.  The  colleges  then 
founded  have  disappeared.  There  are  no  congregations 
of  strength.  The  causes  may  probably  be  traced  to  the 
uncertain  and  indefinite  doctrinal  position  then  taken,  which 
encouraged  entrance  into  other  churches,  except  where 
connection  with  the  Lutheran  Church  was  perfectly  con- 
venient, and  which  developed  a  form  of  church  life  that 
obliterated,  to  a  great  extent,  distinctive  Lutheran  features. 
The  later  development  on  this  territory  is  more  encourag- 
ing, as  the  adherence  to  the  Lutheran  faith  has  been  more 
positive. 

A  very  important  event  was  the  founding  of  the  Church 
Extension  Society  by  a  convention  at  Frederick,  Md,, 
May  19,  1853,  for  furnishing  poor  and   destitute  congre- 


ENGLISH  LUTHERAN  LITERATURE.  439 

gations  with  church  buildings.  The  end  in  view  was  the 
securing  of  a  capital  of  $50,000,  to  be  devoted  to  loans 
upon  secure  mortgages,  without  interest.  A  very  small 
portion  of  the  desired  amount  accumulated  during  this 
period ;  but  this  agency  has  been  one  of  the  chief  means 
by  which  the  General  Synod  has  advanced.  In  1893  the 
Board  of  Church  Extension  reported  assets  of  over  $247,- 
000,  a  large  portion  of  which,  however,  was  in  lots,  do- 
nated at  various  points,  for  future  churches,  and  in  prop- 
erties from  which  little  can  be  realized. 

A  Publication  Society  was  formed  in  1855.  It  was  in 
answer  to  the  general  demand  for  better  acquaintance  with 
the  doctrines  and  history  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  It 
aimed  to  furnish  both  translations  and  original  works  in 
this  interest.  Rev.  B.  Keller  was  its  indefatigable  and  suc- 
cessful agent,  who  canvassed  the  churches  and  secured  a 
handsome  beginning  of  an  endowment.  A  building  had 
been  rented  and  a  depository  opened  on  Arch  Street,  near 
Eighth,  Philadelphia.  In  1859  a  direct  connection  of  the 
society  with  the  General  Synod  was  effected. 

Contributions  toward  an  English  Lutheran  literature 
were  abundant  during  the  decade  1850-60.  Some  have 
been  already  mentioned.  We  add  the  principal  publica- 
tions not  yet  referred  to.  Among  the  controversial  works, 
Dr.  Bachman's  contributions,  as  a  naturalist  as  well  as  theo- 
logian, to  the  discussion  of  the  unity  of  the  human  race 
took  a  side  then  deemed  unscientific,  against  Nott,  Gliddon, 
Morton,  Agassiz,  etc.  Since  then,  scientific  skepticism  has 
gone  to  the  opposite  extreme,  the  unity  of  all  forms  of 
animal  life  being  maintained  by  the  advocates  of  the  evo- 
lutionary hypothesis.  Dr.  J.  A.  Seiss,  then  pastor  in  Bal- 
timore, was  in  controversy  with  Dr.  Richard  Fuller  on 
the  subject  of  baptism.  His  book  "  The  Baptist  System 
Examined,"  published  in  several  editions,  was  the  final  re- 


440  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxiv. 

suit.  Dr.  Seiss's  lectures  on  "The  Last  Times,"  in  which  he 
advocated  the  pre- millennial  return  of  Christ,  had  already 
attracted  attention,  and  given  him  a  wide  reputation  both 
in  this  country  and  in  Great  Britain.  His  *'  Digest  of 
Christian  Doctrine"  (1857)  was  an  attempt  to  supply  a 
felt  want,  that  was  well  executed.  It  is  a  very  brief  state- 
ment of  theological  definitions  from  recognized  Lutheran 
theologians.  His  **  Gospel  in  Leviticus  "  (republished  in 
London)  and  '*  Book  of  Forms  "  were  just  about  appear- 
ing. **  The  Evangehcal  Psalmist,"  of  which  he  was  chief 
editor,  did  much  toward  preparing  the  way  for  "  The 
Church  Book  "  and  its  proper  use.  Dr.  Morris  published 
a  number  of  interesting  small  volumes  illustrative  of  events 
in  the  life  of  Luther,  as  well  as  a  memoir  of  John  Arndt. 
Dr.  C.  P.  Krauth's  translation  of  Tholuck  on  "  The  Gos- 
pel of  St.  John,"  Dr.  C.  F.  Schaeffer's  translation  of 
Kurtz's  *'  Sacred  History,"  Dr.  C.  W.  Schaeffer's  ''  Early 
History  of  the  Lutheran  Church,"  ''Family  Prayers,"  and 
translation  of  Bogatsky's  "  Golden  Treasury,"  Dr.  G.  F. 
Krotel's  book  on  the  beatitudes,  and  his  translation  of 
Ledderhose's  "  Life  of  Melanchthon,"  Dr.  M.  L.  Stoever's 
"  Life  of  Muhlenberg,"  Dr.  S.  S.  Schmucker's  "  Lutheran 
Manual,"  and  some  practical  works  by  Dr.  B.  Kurtz  and 
Dr.  T.  Stork,  belong  to  this  time. 

There  was  no  lack  of  church  periodicals.  The  same 
principles  apply  to  them  we  have  already  noted  in  refer- 
ring to  the  multiplication  of  colleges.  Important  as  the 
church  paper  is  for  diffusing  the  life  of  the  church  among 
the  people,  we  can  in  no  way  determine  how  efficiently 
this  is  accomplished  by  the  number  of  journals  that  attempt 
it.  The  aim  too  often  is  to  prevent  information  and  dis- 
cussions from  reaching  those  who  would  be  apt  to  be  influ- 
enced thereby.  The  editors  and  contributors,  giving  their 
services  in  general  gratuitously,  and   overburdened  with 


THE    CHURCH  PAPERS.  44! 

other  labors,  as  a  rule  feel  themselves,  or  are  found  to  be, 
entirely  incapable  of  representing  to  their  readers  all  the 
interests  of  the  church  fairly  and  impartially.  Each  is 
apt  to  stand  only  for  a  side  of  the  truth,  and  that  often  a 
narrow  one,  while  other  sides  of  the  truth,  and  other  truths 
just  as  important,  are  excluded  or  overlooked.  Notwith- 
standing these  defects,  the  church  could  not  do  without 
them,  and  a  debt  of  gratitude  is  due  many  disinterested 
laborers  in  this  sphere.  In  the  ''  Lutheran  Observer,"  until 
1858,  Dr.  B.  Kurtz  continued  to  wage  a  warfare  against  the 
incoming  wave  of  ''  symbolism,"  as  he  called  it,  and  from 
which  he  apprehended  grave  consequences,  Drs.  Anspach 
and  Diehl  having  succeeded  him  as  this  period  closes. 
In  ''The  Missionary,"  Dr.  Passavant  was  communicating 
most  interesting  facts  concerning  the  progress  of  missions 
throughout  the  country,  and  had  gained  a  co-laborer  in 
Dr.  Krauth,  Jr.,  whose  theological  articles  were  at  the 
time  heavy  reading  for  a  weekly,  but  had  a  powerful  and 
permanent  influence  upon  the  educated  ministry.  In 
*' The  Standard"  of  Columbus,  O.,  Dr.  Greenwald  for  a 
portion  of  this  period  had  been  with  all  mildness  but  firm- 
ness pleading  for  fidelity  to  the  confessions.  ''  The  Evan- 
gelical Lutheran"  and  ''The  Olive  Branch"  represented 
the  interests  of  Springfield,  O.,  and  Springfield,  III,  the 
former  under  the  editorship  of  Rev.  V.  L.  Conrad,  and  the 
latter  under  that  of  Dr.  S.  W.  Harkey.  "  The  Lutheran 
Home  Journal  "  was  a  family  m.agazine  of  much  interest 
and  a  high  literary  standard,  issued  by  the  Board  of  Pub- 
lication at  Philadelphia.  "The  Evangelical  Review,"  be- 
fore mentioned,  of  Gettysburg,  Pa.,  was  the  great  repository 
of  articles  of  permanent  value,  that  render  it  almost  as 
important  for  the  American  student  of  Lutheran  theology 
to-day  as  when  its  numbers  were  issued.  It  was  the 
chief  link,  of  this  period,  between  Lutheran  theology  and 


442  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxiv. 

the  Lutheran  Church  of  America  that  used  the  EngHsh 
language. 

Among  the  German  papers,  the  *'  Kirchenbote "  of 
Gettysburg,  and  then  of  SeHnsgrove,  represented  the 
American  Lutheran,  and  the  *'  Zeitschrift,"  under  Pastor 
S.  K.  Brobst  of  AUentown,  the  confessional  position,  in 
which  it  was  supported  by  the  **  Herold  "  of  New  York. 


PERIOD   V. 
REORGANIZATION 

A.D.    i860 . 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

THE    ERA    OF    DISINTEGRATION    (1860-67). 

The  period  beginning  with  i860  and  extending  to  the 
present  is  remarkable  especially  for  the  enormous  immi- 
gration to  this  country,  which  has  carried  w^th  it  a  large 
Lutheran  population.  Vast  as  w^as  the  immigration  of  the 
preceding  period,  it  can  bear  no  comparison  with  this. 
The  Norwegian  and  Swedish  immigration,  from  1861  to 
1870,  numbered  117,798,  from  1871  to  1880,  226,488,  and 
from  1 88 1  to  1890,  560,483  persons.  The  Danes  num- 
bered from  1861  to  1870,  17,885,  from  1871  to  1880, 
34,577,  and  from  1 881  to  1 890,  88,102  persons.  They 
may  all,  with  a  very  few  exceptions,  be  counted  baptized 
members  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  From  these  three  Scan- 
dinavian countries  alone  over  one  million  of  population 
has  been  added  to  that  for  whose  care  the  Lutheran  Church 
is  responsible.  Over  four  millions  of  Germans  entered 
America  during  the  same  time,  among  whom  were  large 
numbers  of  Lutherans.  Finland,  the  Baltic  Provinces  of 
Russia,  and  Iceland  contributed  also  their  thousands. 
Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  the  statistics  given  are  those 
solely  for  the  United  States,  and  do  not  include  the  par- 
allel wave  of  immigration  to  Canada,  which  is  not  divided 
by  any  ecclesiastical  lines  from  the  Lutheran  Churches  of 
America.  The  St.  Lawrence  has  proved  to  be  a  less  for- 
midable ecclesiastical  barrier  between  the  Lutherans  on  its 
two  sides  than  has  been  the  Potomac. 

The  effects  of  this  immigration  are  seen  in  the  growth  of 

445 


446  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxv. 

the  cities  and  their  immediate  surroundings,  and  in  the 
great  expansion  of  the  population  in  the  West.  The  rural 
districts  and  the  smaller  towns  of  the  East  have  not  gained 
much  from  it.  The  South  has  received  few  of  the  immi- 
grants, except  in  Texas.  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  and  the 
numerous  smaller  cities  along  the  line  of  the  old  Erie  Canal, 
have  been  favorites.  Thence  the  line  may  be  traced 
westward,  through  Ohio,  until  at  length,  increasing  through- 
out Indiana  and  Illinois,  there  is  found  in  Wisconsin  and 
"Minnesota  and  North  Dakota  a  preponderance  of  the 
Lutheran  element,  even  exceeding  that  of  eastern  Penn- 
sylvania. As  a  consequence,  there  were  in  the  city  of 
Chicago  in  1893  as  many  communicants  in  the  Lutheran 
churches  as  in  the  Episcopalian,  Presbyterian,  and  Method- 
ist combined.  In  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  Cleveland,  Buffalo, 
Detroit,  Milwaukee,  Minneapolis,  and  St.  Paul,  the  Lutheran 
Church  stood  first  in  numbers.  The  number  of  communi- 
cants in  Wisconsin  has  grown  until  they  are  now  more 
than  all  those  in  the  country  in  1850.  Minnesota  in  1890 
had  143,522  Lutheran  communicants;  those  in  1850  in 
the  United  States  numbered  143,543.  Illinois  in  1890 
was  within  five  thousand  of  the  number  reported  for  the 
whole  country  in  1840.  The  city  of  Chicago  alone  ex- 
ceeded by  seven  thousand  communicants  the  number 
reported  for  the  whole  country  in  1820.  While  tens  of 
thousands  are  without  the  means  of  grace,  and  thousands 
of  others  have  entered  other  denominations,  these  figures 
represent  the  tenacity  of  the  Lutheran  faith,  and  the  ear- 
nestness of  the  immigrants,  in  their  poverty,  to  provide 
churches  and  pastors  for  themselves  and  their  children. 

This  immigration  has  made  the  Lutheran  influence  felt 
outside  of  purely  ecclesiastical  circles.  It  has  entered  even 
into  the  calculations  of  politicians.  On  the  question  of 
"  prohibitory  legislation  "  the  various  denominations  of  this 


THE  BENNETT  LAW.  447 

country  have  been  much  agitated.  A  number  of  ecclesias- 
tical bodies  have  entered  at  various  times,  as  organizations, 
into  the  movements  for  the  enactment  and  enforcement  of 
such  laws.  The  General  Synod  and  a  number  of  its  dis- 
trict synods  are  on  record  upon  this  side.  With  them,  on 
this  subject,  the  Swedish  Augustana  Synod  of  the  General 
Council  has  been  in  full  accord.  There  has  been  no  ques- 
tion in  any  of  the  Lutheran  synods  concerning  the  great 
sin  not  only  of  drunkenness,  but  also  of  intemperance  that 
even  does  not  reach  the  line  of  drunkenness.  The  Synod 
of  Missouri  and  the  synods  affiliated  with  it  have  waged  a 
relentless  war  against  the  saloon.  To  those  coming  from 
countries  where  the  moderate  use  of  beverages  which  when 
drunk  in  great  excess  lead  to  intoxication  is  universal,  but 
where  such  abuse  is  most  rare,  the  radical  remedies  pro- 
posed by  prohibitory  legislation  have  seemed  oppressive. 
There  has  never,  however,  been  that  direct  opposition  to 
prohibitory  legislation  by  ecclesiastical  action  that  there 
has  been  in  its  favor  in  the  bodies  mentioned.  It  would 
become  such,  however,  the  moment  that  there  would  be 
legal  interference  with  the  use  of  wine  in  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per. Where  this  subject,  therefore,  has  been  a  prominent 
factor  in  party  politics,  the  presence  and  attitude  of  the 
large  Lutheran  population  have  been  matters  of  concern 
to  those  most  deeply  interested  in  the  result. 

There  was  a  direct  issue  in  the  year  1890,  in  a  number 
of  the  Northwestern  States,  in  which  the  vote  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Lutheran  churches  changed  the  current  not 
only  of  State,  but  of  national,  politics.  A  revised  school  law, 
especially  in  the  States  of  Wisconsin  and  Illinois  (known 
in  Wisconsin,  from  its  author,  as  ''  the  Bennett  Law "), 
not  only  required  that  certain  branches  should  be  taught 
in  English,  but  placed  all  schools,  including  the  parochial 
schools,    under    State    supervision.      The    synods    of   the 


448  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxv. 

Synodical  Conference  and  the  Synod  of  Iowa,  in  which  the 
parochial  school  system  has  been  developed  with  greatest 
success,  cooperated  with  the  Roman  Cathohcs  in  a  most 
thoroughly  organized  resistance,  which  overthrew  the  party 
in  power  in  the  States  in  which  such  legislation  was  pro- 
posed, and  secured  the  permanency  and  independence  of 
the  parochial  schools.  While  the  church  as  such  has  noth- 
ing to  do  with  politics,  yet  when  Christian  men  are  con- 
vinced that  an  attempt  is  made  by  the  state  to  interfere 
with  the  church's  legitimate  work,  they  cannot  be  expected 
to  do  otherwise  than  to  resist  by  every  lawful  and  honorable 
means.  These  instances  are  cited  here  only  as  illustrations 
of  the  growing  importance  that  is  conceded  to  the  Lutheran 
element  in  American  society.  The  country  has  learned, 
to  an  extent,  to  recognize  its  significance,  and  to  be  in- 
terested in  ascertaining  who  these  people  are,  and  whence 
they  came,  and  whither  they  are  tending. 

To  one  viewing  this  period  from  the  inside,  it  divides  nat- 
urally into  three  sections,  according  to  the  prevaihng  tend- 
ency. There  is,  first,  an  era  of  disintegration  (1860-67); 
secondly,  of  reconstruction  and  reorganization  (1867-77); 
and,  thirdly,  of  the  reapproach  and  readjustment  to  one 
another  of  the  separated  portions  (1877-93). 

In  i860  the  General  Synod  numbered  two  thirds  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  this  country,  having  864  out  of  13 13 
ministers,  and  164,000  out  of  235,000  communicants.  All 
hopes  of  centralization  seemed  to  depend  upon  the  main- 
tenance of  its  numerical  integrity.  It  was  in  the  interest 
of  this  centralization  that  the  conservatives  had  yielded 
so  much  in  the  terms  upon  which  the  Melanchthon  Synod 
had  been  admitted.  The  disintegration  began  soon  after- 
ward, and  at  first  did  not  seem  to  be  very  formidable. 
At  Springfield,  III,  the  Swedes  and  Norwegians  of  the 
Synod  of  Northern  Illinois  provided  for  a  professorship  in 


THE  AUGUSTAN  A   SYNOD.  449 

Illinois  State  University,  which  was  filled  by  Professor  L. 
P.  Esbjorn.  Although  the  preponderance  of  sentiment 
within  the  synod  and  at  the  institution  was  on  the  conserv- 
ative side,  the  Scandinavians  felt  insecure  because  of  the 
heat  of  the  controversy  raging  among  their  American 
brethren,  in  which  the  Scriptural  character  of  the  Augs- 
burg Confession  as  a  whole,  and  of  certain  of  its  articles, 
which  they  held  sacred,  had  been  calleci  in  question.  The 
timidity  of  the  General  Synod  in  dealing  with  the  case  of 
the  Melanchthon  Synod  had  alarmed  them.  They  de- 
clared that  they  had  evidence  that  efforts  w^ere  being  made 
to  change  the  nature  of  the  doctrinal  obligation  of  their 
professor  of  theology,  although  they  alone  were  responsi- 
ble for  his  support.  The  Swedes  are  a  peace-loving  peo- 
ple ;  and  sooner  than  be  subjected  to  the  annoyance  of 
an  incessant  controversy  for  years,  they  determined,  with 
their  Norwegian  brethren,  to  withdraw,  and  to  allow  the 
Americans  alone  to  fight  the  battle.  Their  professor  left 
the  seminary  very  suddenly,  and  their  students  also  with- 
drew, in  February,  i860.  A  convention  was  held  in 
Chicago  by  their  pastors,  who  on  May  7th  formally  dis- 
solved their  union  with  the  Synod  of  Northern  Illinois. 
A  series  of  preambles  precedes  the  resolution  of  withdrawal : 

Whereas  we  are  fully  convinced  that  there  is  a  decided  doctrinal  difference 
in  our  synod ;  and  whereas  there  in  reality  already  exists  a  disunion,  instead 
of  union,  in  the  synod ;  and  whereas  strife  and  contention  tend  to  destroy 
confidence,  and  to  weaken  our  hands  and  retard  our  progress  ;  and  whereas 
we  are  liable  at  any  time,  by  an  accidental  majority  of  votes  against  our  doc- 
trinal position,  to  have  a  change  forced  upon  us  ;  and  whereas  it  is  our  high- 
est duty  to  maintain  and  preserve  unmutilated  our  confession  of  faith,  both 
in  our  congregations  and  in  the  theological  instruction  imparted  to,  and  the 
influence  brought  to  bear  upon,  our  students,  who  are  to  be  the  future  min- 
isters and  pastors  of  our  congregations  ;  and  whereas  our  experience  clearly 
demonstrates  to  us  that  we  cannot  be  sure  of  this,  in  the  relations  we  have 
heretofore  sustained.! 

1  "  The  Missionary,"  May  17,  i860.     Compare  ibid.^  May  24th, 


45 O  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxv. 

Dr.  E.  Norelius,  one  of  the  participants  in  this  confer- 
ence, writing  twenty-five  years  afterward,  says :  **  It  must 
be  acknowledged  that  the  severance  of  our  connection 
with  the  Synod  of  Northern  IlHnois  took  place  in  a  kind 
of  revolutionary  way ;  but  even  in  this  we  may  behold  the 
guiding  hand  of  God."^  The  immediate  effect  undoubt- 
edly was  a  weakening  of  the  conservatives.  A  blow  was 
dealt  the  young  institution,  then  under  the  guidance  of 
Drs.  S.  W.  Harkey  and  W.  M.  Reynolds,  from  which  it 
never  recovered.  Slowly  it  declined,  until,  after  the  val- 
uable property  was  saved  to  the  Lutheran  Church  by  the 
maintenance  of  the  mere  form  of  a  college  by  the  Minis- 
terium  of  Pennsylvania,  it  was  finally  transferred,  early  in 
the  seventies,  to  the  Missouri  Synod,  for  its  now  flourish- 
ing Practical  Seminary.  When  in  June,  i860,  the  Scan- 
dinavians completed  the  organization  of  their  synod,  they 
called  it  the  Augustana  Synod,  and  their  new  college, 
founded  shortly  afterward  at  Paxton,  III,  and  thence 
transferred  to  Rock  Island,  was  called  Augustana  College, 
both  names  being  intended  as  clear  and  distinct  confessions 
of  adherence  to  that  fundamental  creed  of  Lutheranism 
which  they  had  thought  to  be  imperiled  by  their  previous 
associations.  They  thus  proclaimed  that,  whatever  might 
be  the  extent  to  which  Americans  allowed  the  existence 
of  errors  in  the  Augsburg  Confession  to  be  an  open  ques- 
tion, the  Swedes  and  Norwegians  would  proceed  quietly 
and  peaceably  to  the  building  up  of  their  churches,  and  the 
development  of  their  work  according  to  the  faith  therein 
taught.  Had  they  done  otherwise,  and  allowed  their  ad- 
herence to  the  Augsburg  Confession  to  admit  of  doubt, 
their  relations  to  their  home  churches  in  Europe  would 
have  been  jeopardized.  The  Swedes  were  not  ready  to 
renounce  the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Upsala  of  1593^ 

1  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  v.,  p.  '^Z' 


THE   CIVIL    WAR. 


451 


Church  conflicts  were  almost  forgotten  in  the  civil  agi- 
tations of  the  close  of  i860  and  the  subsequent  year. 
The  passions  aroused  in  the  bitter  discussions  which  pre- 
ceded the  clash  of  arms,  and  all  the  extravagances  of  de- 
nunciation that  marked  the  utterances  of  the  press  and 
the  declamations  of  public  speakers  during  the  war,  un- 
doubtedly had  their  effect  in  intensifying  the  violence  of 
ecclesiastical  controversy  when  it  again  broke  out.  In 
those  days  it  was  impossible  to  judge  questions  with  judi- 
cial fairness  and  to  look  dispassionately  upon  two  sides 
of  an  argument.  Men  were  either  intense  partisans  or 
were  silent.  Arbitrary  measures  which  would  scarcely  be 
entertained  in  time  of  peace  were  deemed  perfectly  justi- 
fiable in  time  of  war.  What  Christian  men  would  persuade 
themselves  to  be  right  in  the  State  they  were  ready  to 
introduce  and  defend  in  the  church.  The  church  press 
could  not  but  be  infected  by  the  spirit  which  controlled 
the  secular  press. 

But  before  this  increased  partisan  rancor  could  occasion 
a  rupture,  one  had  occurred  in  the  separation,  four  years 
previously,  of  the  Southern  synods  from  the  General 
Synod  by  the  lines  of  two  hostile  armies.  Such  was  the 
confusion  and  uncertainty  attending  the  opening  of  the 
war  in  the  spring  of  1861,  that  it  was  deemed  advisable  to 
postpone  the  meeting  of  the  General  Synod  until  the  fol- 
lowing year.  When  it  met  in  Trinity  Church,  Lancaster, 
May  I,  1862,  the  excitement  connected  with  the  war  was 
intense.  A  dark  shadow  had  fallen  over  many  a  house- 
hold of  those  there  represented,  by  the  sacrifice  of  some 
cherished  member.  The  daily  anxiety  for  others  exposed 
to  the  perils  of  the  battlefield  and  camp  was  intense.  The 
horrors  of  war  as  seen  in  hospitals,  and  in  trains  laden 
with  wounded  carried  North,  were  indescribable.  That 
some  action  concerning  the  conflict  would  be  taken,  and 


452  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxv. 

that  this  action  would  be  most  pronounced  against  the 
South,  could  readily  have  been  expected.  The  General 
Synod,  accordingly,  sent  a  committee  to  President  Lincoln, 
communicating  resolutions  characterizing  "  the  rebellion 
against  the  constitutional  government  of  this  land "  as 
**  most  wicked  in  its  inception,  unjustifiable  in  its  cause, 
unnatural  in  its  character,  inhuman  in  its  prosecution,  op- 
pressive in  its  aims,  and  destructive  in  its  results  to  the 
highest  interests  of  morality  and  religion."  One  supple- 
mentary resolution  expressed  **  decided  disapprobation  of 
the  course  of  those  synods  and  ministers,  heretofore  con- 
nected with  this  body,  in  the  open  sympathy  and  active 
cooperation  they  have  given  to  the  cause  of  treason  and 
insurrection  "  ;  and  another  conveyed  the  sympathies  of 
the  General  Synod  to  ''  our  people  in  the  Southern  States, 
who,  maintaining  true  Christian  loyalty,  have  in  conse- 
quence been  compelled  to  suffer  persecution  and  wrong; 
and  we  hail  with  pleasure  the  near  approach  of  their  de- 
Hverance  and  restoration  to  our  Christian  and  ecclesiastical 
fellowship." 

It  is  a  question  whether  the  last  resolution  did  not  form- 
ally convey  to  the  Southern  synods  their  exclusion,  or, 
at  any  rate,  suggest  that,  without  a  change  of  attitude 
concerning  the  issues  of  the  war,  their  return  would  not 
be  desired.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  intention  of 
the  General  Synod,  they  quickly  so  interpreted  it.  Con- 
demned by  the  body  to  which  they  had  belonged,  they 
determined  not  to  wait  for  the  end  of  the  war,  but  to 
organize  a  new  general  organization  immediately.  "  The 
General  Synod  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  in 
the  Confederate  States  of  America "  was  organized  at 
Concord,  N.  C,  May  20,  1863,  withdrawing  from  the  old 
General  Synod  five  of  its  district  synods.  When  peace 
was  finally  established,  the  resolutions  of  1862  were  a  bar 


THE    GENERAL   SYNOD,  SOUTH.  453 

to  the  return  of  the  Southern  synods.  But  if  they  had 
been  the  only  obstacles,  they  would  doubtless  have  been 
overcome.  If  the  church  in  the  North  would  have  re- 
mained united,  the  Southern  synods  would  soon  have 
resumed  their  former  place.  The  close  of  the  war  came 
when  a  separation  between  the  Northern  synods  seemed 
imminent.  The  attention  of  the  church  was  concentrated 
upon  the  controversy  that  was  raging  in  the  church 
papers.  Another  seminary  had  been  established  in  Penn- 
sylvania, representing  the  conservative  element,  which  had 
attracted  to  its  support  many  of  the  most  prominent  pas- 
tors in  the  General  Synod.  The  leaders  of  the  South- 
ern General  Synod,  most  of  them  young  men,  were  in 
accord  with  the  growing  conservative  tendency,  even 
though  the  life  of  many  of  the  congregations  was  greatly 
affected  by  influences  proceeding  from  the  denominations 
around  them.  Their  "  Book  of  Worship,"  pubhshed  dur- 
ing the  war,  showed  an  advance  in  this  regard  upon  the 
*' Hymn-book  "  of  the  church  in  the  North.  In  1866  it 
was  therefore  decided  to  perpetuate  the  General  Synod 
of  the  Confederate  States,  under  a  new  name,  viz.,  "The 
EvangeKcal  Lutheran  General  Synod  in  North  America." 
A  Pastoral  Address  was  issued,  in  which  the  reasons  were 
assigned  for  its  separate  existence.  The  progress  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  the  South,  it  was  urged,  was  depend- 
ent partially  upon  its  more  complete  independence  of  the 
North.  Southern  Lutheran  institutions,  and  Southern 
Lutheran  literature  adapted  to  the  peculiar  wants  of  the 
church  in  the  South,  were  especially  necessary.  It  was 
also  affirmed : 


The  little  progress  which  the  Lutheran  Church  has  made  in  this  country, 
North  and  South,  is  to  be  accounted  for,  in  great  measure,  by  the  extreme 
latitudinarianism  which  she  has  taught  and  practiced.  It  has  been  too  much 
the  practice  of  her  ministers  to  seek  to  make  the  impression  on  the  public 


454  ^-^^^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxv. 

mind  that  in  no  important  particular  do  we  differ  from  other  denominations. 
Tlie  consequence  is  the  want  of  that  church  love  so  essential  to  the  success 
of  every  church,  and  which  we  see  so  strongly  developed  among  the  Baptists, 
Presbyterians,  Methodists,  and  Episcopalians.  This  fact  also  accounts  for 
the  easy  transition  of  our  ministers  and  members  to  the  communion  of  other 
churches.  As  Lutherans  we  have  an  historical  prestige  and  a  confession  of 
faith  which,  the  property  of  other  denominations  in  our  midst,  they  would 
virtually  eclipse  the  success  of  every  church  wanting  these.  Why,  then,  do 
we  not  avail  ourselves  of  the  armor  furnished  to  our  hands,  and  get  to  our- 
selves a  name  and  position  which  shall  be  the  glory  of  Protestantism?  Let 
us,  then,  at  this  particular  juncture  of  our  church,  plant  ourselves  firmly 
upon  the  Augsburg  Confession,  the  proud  bulwark  of  Protestantism,  de- 
spite all  opposition,  from  whatever  source,  arrayed  against  us.  .  .  .  We 
would  seek  to  perpetuate  our  organization  further,  because  of  the  distraction 
and  contentions  in  the  General  Synod  of  the  United  States.  From  its  rise 
to  the  present  time  it  has  been  convulsed  and  torn  by  internal  dissensions. 
At  its  late  meeting  at  Fort  Wayne,  Ind.,  the  Pennsylvania  Synod  withdrew, 
with  the  probability  of  others  pursuing  a  like  course. 


Throughout  the  war  the  Lutheran  churches,  on  both 
sides  of  the  Hne,  suffered  greatly.  The  losses  of  those  in 
the  North  were  chiefly  of  the  soldiers  who  fell  in  battle  or 
from  disease.  The  battle  of  Gettysburg  raged  around  the 
institutions  of  the  General  Synod.  From  the  cupola  of 
the  Theological  Seminary  the  Union  generals,  Reynolds 
and  Buford,  made  their  observations  at  the  opening  of  the 
first  day's  engagement,  and  from  that  of  Pennsylvania 
College  General  Lee  surveyed  the  left  center  of  the  Union 
line,  before  the  famous  charge  of  Pickett  was  ordered  on 
the  afternoon  of  Friday,  July  3,  1863.  In  the  retreat  of 
the  first  day  the  lines  of  battle  swept  through  the  grounds 
of  both  institutions,  and  as  they  passed  over  them  they 
left  in  their  track  the  dead  and  dying.  For  many  weeks 
the  buildings  were  used  as  hospitals.  \\\  the  haste,  books 
were  taken  from  the  library  shelves  of  Pennsylvania  Col- 
lege, and  used  to  support  the  heads  of  the  wounded  laid 
upon  the  floor.     The  blood-soaked  volumes  of  venerable 


DESOLATIONS   OF   WAR.  455 

theologians  of  former  centuries,  with  pages  still  cemented 
by  the  life-current  that  flowed  from  the  hearts  of  dying 
heroes,  remain  as  records,  more  eloquent  than  any  writ- 
ten language,  of  the  horrors  of  war.  The  damages  were 
speedily  repaired  by  contributions  from  the  churches. 

But  the  heaviest  losses  were  those  of  the  South.  The 
Shenandoah  Valley,  through  which  the  two  armies  so 
frequently  moved,  and  in  which  they  met,  contained  many 
Lutheran  congregations.  The  churches  farther  South 
suffered  greatly  from  Sherman's  march  to  the  sea.  The 
venerable  Dr.  Bachman,  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  was  one  of 
the  heaviest  losers,  and  with  him  the  entire  church,  by  the 
burning  of  his  valuable  library  with  his  manuscripts.  He 
also  suffered  painful  physical  violence  from  one  of  the 
lawless  bands  that,  under  the  pretended  sanction  of  mili- 
tary law,  traversed  the  country  to  rob  and  to  injure  all 
who  withstood  them.  With  the  exception  of  Roanoke 
College,  all  the  institutions  in  the  South  were  closed. 
Their  students  and  those  who  would  have  become  such 
were,  as  a  rule,  taken,  wilhngly  or  unwillingly,  into  the 
Southern  army.  The  funds  of  many  of  these  institutions 
were  invested  in  Confederate  securities,  and,  with  the  fall 
of  the  Confederacy,  became  worthless.  Newberry  Col- 
lege was  emptied  of  its  students  for  use  by  the  Con- 
federate government,  and  the  building  was  left  in  a  con- 
dition that  rendered  it  for  years  unfit  for  its  intended 
purpose.  The  Theological  Seminary  was  closed  during 
the  second  year  of  the  war,  thus  leaving  the  South  with- 
out any  provision  for  theological  instruction  until  after  the 
return  of  peace. 

The  most  serious  break  in  the  General  Synod  began  in 
1864.  In  1839  a  resolution  had  been  passed  condemning 
alike  the  Franckean  and  Tennessee  synods,  as  representing 


456  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxv. 

the  two  extremes  inimical  to  union  in  the  Lutheran 
Church.  When  an  effort  was  made,  therefore,  in  1857, 
to  rescind  the  action  concerning  the  one,  the  action  con- 
cerning the  other  had,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  receive 
the  same  treatment.  With  the  ban  upon  them  removed, 
the  Franckeans  were  encouraged  by  the  admission  of  the 
Melanchthon  Synod  to  hope  that  without  any  formal  ac- 
ceptance of  the  Augsburg  Confession  they  might  also  be 
received.  At  first  the  case  was  promptly  disposed  of  by 
a  resolution  that  they  would  be  admitted  ''  so  soon  as 
they  shall  give  formal  expression  to  their  adoption  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession  as  received  by  the  General  Synod." 
This  was  intended  to  bring  the  question  of  the  relation  of 
the  Franckean  Synod  to  the  Augsburg  Confession  before 
that  body,  and  to  make  their  reception  at  a  subsequent 
convention  of  the  General  Synod  contingent  upon  their 
own  action.  But  the  subject  was  reopened  the  next  day 
by  the  presentation  of  a  paper  from  the  delegates,  in  which 
they  declared  that  in  adopting  the  constitution  of  the 
General  Synod  the  synod  had  "  understood  that  they 
were  adopting  the  doctrinal  position  of  the  General  Synod, 
viz.,  '  That  the  fundamental  truths  of  the  Word  of  God 
are  taught  in  a  manner  substantially  correct  in  the  Augs- 
burg Confession.'  "  This  led  to  a  reconsideration  of  the 
vote,  and  a  protracted  debate,  resulting  in  the  admission 
of  the  synod  by  a  vote  of  ninety-seven  to  forty,  ''  with  the 
understanding  that  said  synod,  at  its  next  meeting,  declare, 
in  an  official  manner,  its  adoption  of  the  doctrinal  articles 
of  the  Augsburg  Confession  as  a  substantially  correct  exhi- 
bition of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Word  of  God." 
This  resolution  established  the  principle  that  a  synod 
could  be  admitted  to  the  General  Synod  without  any 
official  action  of  adoption   of   the   Augsburg   Confession 


THE   CRISIS  AT   YORK.  457 

preceding,  solely  in  reliance  upon  the  prospect  of  such 
action  in  the  future.  The  assurance  of  the  delegates  was, 
for  the  time,  accepted  as  equivalent  to  the  official  action 
of  the  synod.  What  added  to  the  embarrassment  in  the 
admission  of  the  Franckean  Synod  was  that  that  synod 
had,  instead  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  its  own  confes- 
sion of  faith,  in  which  the  distinctive  doctrines  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  were  not  contained.  This  confession, 
or  ''Declaration,"  was  as  follows: 

1.  We  believe  the  Scriptures  are  the  inspired  Word  of  God,  and  contain 
an  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice  for  mankind. 

2.  That  there  is  one  true  and  living  God,  called  and  made  known  by  rev- 
elation under  the  name  of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost ;  infinite  and  im- 
mutable in  all  natural  and  moral  perfections,  the  Almighty  Maker  of  heaven 
and  earth,  and  of  all  things  visible  and  invisible. 

3.  That  man  was  created  in  the  image  of  God,  free  from  sin  and  every 
moral  imperfection ;  that  he  fell  by  disobedience  from  this  state,  and  became 
morally  depraved  in  his  nature  ;  and  that,  in  consequence  of  his  sin,  he  trans- 
mitted his  moral  pollution  and  sinful  propensities  to  all  his  posterity. 

4.  That  Jesus  Christ,  the  only-begotten  Son  of  God,  in  the  fullness  of  time 
was  manifested  in  the  flesh,  and  is  the  only  Redeemer ;  that  he  was  crucified, 
dead,  and  buried;  that  he  arose  from  the  dead,  ascended  into  heaven,  and  is 
now  exalted  at  God's  right  hand,  to  make  intercession  for  the  whole  human 
race. 

5.  That  God,  who  is  rich  in  mercy,  has  not  left  mankind  to  perish  in  that 
state  of  misery  which  they  have  deserved  by  their  sins,  but  has,  in  his  infinite 
love,  provided  a  way  of  salvation,  through  the  atoning  death  of  Jesus  Christ, 
his  beloved  Son ;  that  his  sacrifice  has  made  an  ample  and  sufficient  atonement 
for  the  sins  of  the  whole  human  race ;  and  that  the  saving  benefits  of  the 
atonement  are  freely  and  sincerely  offered  to  all  men  by  the  gospel,  but  that 
those  only  who  repent  and  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  will  be  saved. 

6.  That  men  are  not  justified  on  account  of  any  merits  or  works  of  their 
own,  but  are  freely  justified  by  faith  in  the  atoning  blood  of  Christ,  for  whose 
sake  only  God  pardons  sin. 

7.  That  the  Holy  Ghost  is  given  to  quicken  and  renew  the  hearts  of  men, 
and  that  the  influences  of  the  Spirit  and  of  the  Word  of  God  are  indispen- 
sably necessary  to  bring  sinners  to  repentance,  produce  saving  faith,  sanctify 
the  soul,  and  perfect  our  holiness. 

8.  That  there  is  a  necessity  of  a  radical  change  of  heart,  and  that  none 
should  be  admitted  to  membership  and  privileges  of  the  church  but  such  as 


458  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxV. 

give  a  credible  evidence  of  being  born  again,  and  are  living  according  to  the 
precepts  and  requirements  of  the  gospel. 

9.  That  Christ  has  instituted  the  ordinances  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper  for  the  perpetual  observance  and  edification  of  the  church ;  baptism 
is  the  initiatory  ordinance,  and  signifies  the  necessity  of  holiness  of  heart,  and 
the  Lord's  Supper  is  frequently  to  be  celebrated,  as  a  token  of  faith  in  the 
atonement  of  Christ,  and  of  brotherly  love. 

10.  That  the  keeping  of  the  moral  law  as  a  rule  of  life,  a  conscientious 
and  uniform  attendance  upon  public  and  private  worship,  and  an  entire  sub- 
mission to  the  regular  authority  and  discipline  of  the  church,  and  observance 
of  all  its  institutions,  and  whatever  else  may  tend  to  promote  the  glory  of 
God  and  the  salvation  of  men,  are  duties  which  every  Christian  is  under  sol- 
emn obligation  to  perform. 

11.  That  Jesus  Christ  will  come  the  second  time,  when  he  will  judge  the 
world  in  righteousness ;  that  there  will  be  a  resurrection  of  the  dead,  both  of 
the  just  and  unjust ;  and  that  he  will  receive  the  righteous  into  life  eternal, 
but  the  wicked  will  be  sent  into  endless  punishment. 

The  protest  presented  against  the  admission  of  a  synod 
whose  relation  to  the  Augsburg  Confession  was  regarded 
as  thus  indeterminate,  by  the  delegates  from  the  Ministe- 
rium  of  Pennsylvania,  and  a  number  from  the  Pittsburg 
Synod,  New  York  Ministerium,  Maryland,  East  Pennsyl- 
vania, English  Ohio,  Olive  Branch,  Illinois,  Northern 
Illinois,  and  English  Iowa  synods,  stated  that  the  admis- 
sion of  the  Franckean  Synod  was  a  violation  of  the  con- 
stitution, since  it  was  conceded  that  the  synod  had  not 
complied  with  the  constitutional  requirements.  The 
answer,  prepared  by  a  committee,  affirmed  that  there  was 
no  violation  of  the  constitution,  since  the  Franckean  Synod 
"  has  really,  although  not  formally,  complied,"  and  *'  the 
constitution  of  the  General  Synod  is  indefinite  In  its  re- 
quirements on  this  point."  The  delegates  of  the  Minis- 
terium of  Pennsylvania  presented  a  paper  reciting  the 
conditions  upon  which  their  synod  had  united  with  the 
General  Synod  in  1853,  viz.,  that '*  should  the  General 
Synod  violate  its  constitution,  and  require  of  our  synod 


AMENDED  DOCTRINAL  BASIS.  459 

assent  to  anything  conflicting  with  the  old  and  long-estab- 
Hshed  faith  of  the  EvangeHcal  Lutheran  Church,  Jihen  our 
delegates  are  hereby  required  to  protest  against  such 
action,  to  withdraw  from  its  sessions,  and  report  to  this 
body."  As  they  regarded  the  action  of  the  General 
Synod  as  unconstitutional,  they  felt  themselves,  by  the 
terms  of  their  appointment,  obliged  to  withdraw,  in  order 
to  report  to  their  synod.  However  others  may  have 
regarded  and  represented  it,  they  did  not  regard  their  act 
as  severing  the  connection  of  the  ministerium  with  the 
General  Synod.  *' We  did  not  dream,"  a  subsequent 
report  says,  ''  that  our  synod,  or  any  synod,  would  permit 
a  delegation  to  take  such  an  important  step."  The  with- 
drawal from  the  General  Synod,  in  their  opinion,,  would 
require  the  formal  action  of  the  ministerium  itself.  Neither 
did  they  regard  their  act  in  withdrawing  to  report  as 
recommending  to  their  synod  the  severing  of  its  connec- 
tion with  the  General  Synod.  They  believed  it  to  be 
within  the  province  of  the  ministerium  to  say  whether  or 
not,  under  the  circumstances,  it  should  remain  or  with- 
draw. 

But  the  conservative  element  was  yet  to  gain  a  most 
important  advantage  in  what  seemed  the  hour  of  its  de- 
feat. The  feeling  grew  that  the  precedent  established  by 
the  admission  of  the  Franckean  Synod,  unless  guarded  by 
a  more  specific  statement  of  the  doctrinal  standard  in  the 
constitution,  would  be  susceptible  of  the  greatest  abuse, 
and  decisive  measures  should  be  taken  to  remedy  the  evil. 
The  withdrawal  of  the  Pennsylvania  delegates  had  also 
made  an  impression,  and  there  was  a  widely  felt  desire  to 
prevent  the  ministerium  itself  from  withdravv^ing.  This, 
it  was  hoped,  could  be  accomplished  by  an  amendment  to 
the  constitution  which  would  be  satisfactory  to  its  mem- 


460  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxv. 

bers.     The  amendment  proposed,  and  afterward  adopted 
by  the  vote  of  the  synods,  was  as  follows : 

Article  III.,  Section  3.  Article  as  amended. 

All  regularly  constituted  Lutheran  All  regularly  constituted  Lutheran 
synods  holding  the  fundamental  doc-  synods,  not  now  in  connection  with 
trines  of  the  Bible  as  taught  by  our  the  General  Synod,  receiving  and 
church,  not  now  in  connection  with  holding,  with  the  Evangelical  Luther- 
the  General  Synod,  may  at  any  time  an  Church  of  our  fathers,  the  Word 
become  associated  with  it,  by  adopt-  of  God  as  contained  in  the  canonical 
ing  this  constitution  and  sending  del-  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
egates,  etc,  ments,  as  the  only  infallible  rule  of 

faith  and  practice,  and  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  as  a  correct  exhibition  of 
the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  di- 
vine Word,  and  of  the  faith  of  our 
church,  founded  upon  that  Word, 
■  may,  at  any  time,  become  associated 
with  the  General  Synod,  by  comply- 
ing with  the  requisitions  of  this  con- 
stitution and  sending  delegates,  etc. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  main  resolution  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  the  Pittsburg  Synod  at  Zelienople,  in  1856,^  was 
adopted,  in  which  the  alleged  errors  in  the  Augsburg 
Confession  are  denied  and  repudiated. 

With  this  action,  especially  when  it  became  manifest 
that  the  amendment  to  the  constitution  would  be  adopted 
by  a  sufficient  number  of  synods,  the  Ministerium  of 
Pennsylvania  was  satisfied.  Meeting  the  same  month  in 
which  the  sessions  of  the  General  Synod  were  held  at 
York,  it  approved  the  course  of  its  delegates  in  withdraw- 
ing to  report,  but  deferred  further  action  until,  the  next 
year,  as  no  convention  of  the  General  Synod  would  be 
held  in  the  meantime.  In  1865  it  resolved  to  maintain 
its  connection  with  the  General  Synod  and  to  send  a  del- 
egation to  the  next  convention,  because  of  its  conviction 

1  See  above,  p.     . 


THE  PHILADELPHIA    SEMINARY.  46 1 

that  the  action  of  the  General  Synod,  subsequent  to  the 
withdrawal  of  the  delegation,  was  promotive  '*  of  the  unity 
and  purity  of  our  beloved  Zion  "  ;  but  in  so  doing  the  min- 
isterium  reasserted  the  right,  accorded  its  delegates  on 
their  admission  in  1853,  to  withdraw  and  report  whenever 
a  violation  of  the  constitution  would  seem  to  occur. 

It  is  probable  that  if  there  had  been  no  further  cause 
of  friction  during  the  interim,  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania would  have  participated  in  the  organization  at  Fort 
Wayne  in  1866,  without  conflict  or  objection,  and  the 
General  Synod  would  have  remained  unbroken.  But  in 
the  fall  of  1864  the  Theological  Seminary  in  Philadelphia 
was  estabhshed  by  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
idea  of  such  an  institution  had  been  cherished  ever  since 
the  days  of  Muhlenberg.  The  pastors  of  Zion's  Church, 
Philadelphia,  from  Muhlenberg  to  Mann,  had  acted  as 
theological  preceptors  of  private  students.  Dr.  C.  F. 
Demme  had  gathered  a  library  with  reference  to  the  pro- 
posed seminary.  Dr.  C.  F.  Schaeffer's  efficient  services 
at  Gettysburg  had  not  dissipated  the  hope  of  the  ultimate 
estabhshment  of  a  seminary  either  in  Philadelphia  or  at 
Allentow^n  for  the  training  of  German- American  pastors. 
Rev.  S.  K.  Brobst,  the  editor  of  the  '' Zeitschrift,"  was 
indefatigable  in  his  efforts  to  have  the  hope  realized.  This 
was  developed  in  a  vigorous  discussion  at  the  meeting  of 
the  ministerium  in  1859,  at  which  Rev.  B.  Keller  and  Drs. 
Krotel  and  Passavant  urged  the  desirability  of  a  concen- 
tration of  the  strength  of  the  church  at  Gettysburg,  and 
succeeded  in  temporarily  checking  the  movement.  But 
the  demand  for  German  pastors  was  increasing  above  what 
Gettysburg  could  supply.  It  claimed  the  attention  of  the 
ministerium  in  the  spring  of  1864,  one  of  the  projects 
contemplated  being  to  strengthen  the  force  at  Gettysburg. 
The  events  at  York,  however,  induced  some  of  those  who 


462  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxv. 

had  been  pleading  for  such  union  to  feel  favorably  dis- 
posed, under  certain  contingencies,  toward  a  new  seminary. 
The  time  had  come  when  the  ministerium  had  to  provide 
for  the  training  of  its  candidates  according  to  the  confes- 
sional obligations  which  it  demanded  of  them  on  ordina- 
tion. The  professors  into  whose  care  it  intrusted  them 
must  hereafter  be  pledged  to  this  position.  One  name, 
viz.,  that  of  Charles  Porterfield  Krauth,  was  upon  many  lips, 
as  that  of  the  most  thoroughly  trained  Lutheran  theolo- 
gian in  America,  and  there  was  a  general  desire  that  he 
should  be  placed  in  the  professor's  chair,  as  the  exponent 
of  the  theology  of  the  Lutheran  confessions.  His  exhaust- 
ive articles  in  the  *'  Lutheran  and  Missionary,"  of  which  he 
was  editor-in-chief,  1861-67,  ranked  with  the  most  schol- 
arly defenses  of  the  faith  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  which 
had  ever  been  made.  If  the  chair  at  Gettysburg,  vacated 
by  the  resignation  of  Dr.  S.  S.  Schmucker,  had  been  filled 
by  his  election,  the  ministerium  would  in  all  probabil- 
ity have  felt  that  his  presence  was  a  guarantee  that  the 
future  ministers  would  be  furnished  with  the  necessary 
defenses  against  all  radical  tendencies.  When  the  election 
resulted  differently,  it  was  no  antipathy  to  the  professor- 
elect,  who  had  done  good  service  in  the  battle  against  the 
"  Definite  Platform,"  that  turned  the  sentiment  of  a  large 
portion  of  those  who  had  hitherto  been  averse  to  another 
seminary  toward  the  prompt  execution  of  the  project 
proposed  but  not  acted  upon  at  the  regular  sessions  of 
the  ministerium,  and  the  enlargement  of  its  scope  beyond 
that  of  a  seminary  for  German  pastors.  At  a  special  meet- 
ing at  Allentown,  July  26  and  27,  1864,  it  was  resolved 
to  establish  the  seminary.  Three  professors  ordinarii  and 
two  professors  extraordinarii  were  elected.  Of  the  pro- 
fessors ordinarii,  Dr.  C.  F.  Schaeffer  was  elected  for  the 
intermediate,  or  German-English,  Dr.  W.  J.  Mann  for  the 


INFLUENCE   OF   THE   SEMINARY.  463 

German,  and  Dr.  C.  P.  Krauth  for  the  English  depart- 
ment. Drs.  C.  W.  Schaeffer  and  G.  F.  Krotel  were  elected 
professors  extraordinarii.  Events  moved  more  rapidly 
than  had  been  anticipated.  The  seminary  opened  October 
3,  1864.  The  high  character  and  extensive  influence  of 
this  strong  faculty  attracted  large  numbers  of  students. 
A  building  had  to  be  provided,  and  new  responsibihties 
in  the  support  of  professors  and  students  met ;  but  the 
churches  pf  Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  and  especially 
those  of  Philadelphia,  responded  most  generously.  Ninety 
years  after  it  had  first  been  propounded,  the  project  of 
Muhlenberg  was  at  last  realized.  The  success  which  has 
attended  the  seminary  has  been  due,  not  to  its  accidental 
location  in  a  city,  but,  first,  to  its  historical  position  on 
the  very  spot  of  the  earliest  struggles  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  America,  and  as  the  heir  of  the  labors  and  in- 
stitutions of  the  founders  of  the  church ;  secondly,  to  its 
geographical  position  in  the  very  focus  of  the  large  Ger- 
man-American population  of  eastern  Pennsylvania  and 
New  York  City  and  its  suburbs ;  and,  thirdly  and  chiefly, 
to  the  fact  that  it  has  never  wavered  in  its  devotion  to  the 
Lutheran  Church,  and  in  expounding  Lutheran  doctrines 
with  all  clearness  and  decision. 

Great  as  was  the  gain  to  the  church,  it  was  not  sur- 
prising that  the  establishment  of  the  seminary  occasioned 
some  feeling.  The  seminary  of  the  General  Synod  was 
reduced  by  the  withdrawal  of  students  to  the  smallest 
number  in  its  history.  There  was  an  acknowledged 
abruptness  about  the  sudden  removal  of  one  of  the  pro- 
fessors from  the  old  to  the  new  seminary,  which  un- 
doubtedly is  greatly  to  be  regretted.  Many  whose  sym- 
pathies were  entirely  conservative  were  not  prepared  for 
the  movement.  It  was  too  sudden.  The  successful  efforts 
for  the  endowment  of  the  new  seminary,  shown  by  the 


464  ^^^^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxv. 

beginning  made  in  the  chair  provided  for  by  Charles 
F.  Norton,  were  met  by  corresponding  efforts  to  endow 
the  older  institution.  The  new  seminary  lengthened  the 
course  to  three  years ;  so  did  the  older  seminary,  which 
also  increased  the  number  of  its  professorships.  When 
the  directors  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  appeared 
in  their  usual  place  in  the  board  of  the  seminary  of  the 
General  Synod,  they  were  informed  that,  by  the  establish- 
ment of  a  seminary  of  its  own,  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania had  lost  its  right  of  representation^. 

The  General  Synod  met  at  Fort  Wayne,  Ind.,  May  16, 
1866.  The  delegation  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania 
started  thither  fully  expecting  to  participate  in  all  the 
proceedings.  When  the  time  came  for  their  credentials  to 
be  presented,  the  president  (Rev.  Dr.  S.  Sprecher)  ordered 
that  the  synod  be  passed  over,  for  the  following  reason : 

The  chair  regards  the  act  of  the  delegates  of  the  Pennsylvania  Synod,  by 
which  they  severed  their  practical  relations  with  the  General  Synod,  and 
withdrew  from  the  partnership  of  the  synods  in  the  governing  functions  of 
the  General  Synod,  as  the  act  of  the  Synod  of  Pennsylvania,  and  that  conse- 
quently that  synod  was  out  of  practical  union  with  the  General  Synod  up  to 
the  adjournment  of  the  last  convention,  and  we  cannot  know  ofificially  what 
the  action  of  that  synod  has  been  since,  so  she  must  be  considered  in  that 
state  of  practical  withdrawal  f^'  m  the  governing  functions  of  the  G'eneral 
Synod,  until  the  General  Synod  an  receive  the  report  of  an  act  restoring  her 
practical  relations  to  the  General  Synod ;  and  as  no  such  report  is  offered,  the 
chair  cannot  know  any  paper  offered  at  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
synod,  as  a  certificate  of  delegation  to  this  body. 

When  an  appeal  was  made  from  this  decision,  the  Gen- 
eral Synod  sustained  the  chair.  The  delegates  of  the 
Ministerium  of  New  York,  Pittsburg  Synod,  and  English 
Synod  of  Ohio  declined  to  participate  in  the  election  of 
officers  that  followed,  because  of  what  they  regarded  the 
irregularity  of  the  organization.  The  purpose  of  the  ma- 
jority was  not  to  exclude  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylva- 
nia, but  to  compel  its  delegates  to  apply  for  readmission, 


FORT  WAYNE.  465 

and  then  to  readmit  the  ministerlum,  with  the  condition 
which  the  ministerium  attached  to  its  admission  in  1853 
annulled,  or  the  request  made  that  the  ministerium  should 
itself  annul  it.  The  right  of  delegates  to  withdraw  and 
report  to  their  synod  when  an  act  which  seemed  to  them 
unconstitutional  was  passed,  was  no  longer  to  be  admitted. 
This  was  the  point  of  contention  during  the  days  of  debate 
that  followed.  The  Pennsylvania  delegation  were  firm  in 
the  position  that,  as  they  had  been  elected  by  their  synod 
to  participate  in  the  organization,  they  could  enter  the 
General  Synod  only  when  their  right  so  to  do  had  been 
formally  approved  by  the  body.  In  reply  to  a  paper 
transmitted  them  by  the  General  Synod,  making  an  his- 
torical statement  concerning  the  past  relations  between 
the  two  bodies,  and  requesting  them  ''  to  waive  what  may 
seem  to  them  an  irregular  organization,"  a  long  answer 
was  prepared  and  read  upon  the  floor  of  the  General 
Synod  by  Dr.  G.  F.  Krotel,  closing  with  the  statement : 

Whatever  impression  our  course  may  have  made  upon  some  minds,  and 
whatever  rumors  may  have  been  circulated  in  reference  to  factious  and  schis- 
matic movements  of  the  Synod  of  Pennsylvania,  we  can  say  with  a  good  con- 
science that  we  have  not  sought  division,  but  have  waited  for  union  and  are 
ready  to  cooperate  in  the  General  Synod,  provided : 

That  this  body  shall  now  declare  that  the  Synod  of  Pennsylvania  had,  as  it 
claimed  to  have,  the  constitutional  right  to  be  represented  before  the  election 
of  officers  and  to  take  part  in  it,  and  might  now  justly  claim  the  right  of 
casting  its  vote. 

If  the  convention  will  so  declare,  we  are  perfectly  willing  to  waive  the 
right  of  voting,  will  acquiesce  in  the  present  organization,  and  will  take  our 
seats  in  this  body,  equals  among  equals. 

This  paper  was  signed  by  Drs.  J.  A.  Seiss,  C.  P.  Krauth, 
G.  F.  Krotel,  C.  W.  Schaeffer,  S.  K.  Brobst,  S.  Laird,  and 
Messrs.  L.  L.  Haupt,  Henry  Lehman,  C.  F.  Norton,  and 
Chas.  A.  Heinitsch.  Dr.  B.  M.  Schmucker  and  Mr.  C. 
Pretz  of  the  delegation  had  already  left  Fort  Wayne. 

The  final  action  of  the  General  Synod,  after  a  long  dis- 


466  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxv. 

cussion,  was   the  adoption,  by  a  vote  of   seventy-six   to 
thirty-two,  of  a  resolution  offered  by  Dr.  Joel  Swartz : 

That  after  hearing  the  response  of  the  delegates  of  the  Pennsylvania  Synod, 
we  cannot  conscientiously  recede  from  the  action  taken  by  this  body,  believ- 
ing, after  full  and  careful  deliberation,  said  action  to  have  been  regular  and 
constitutional ;  but  that  we  reaffirm  our  readiness  to  receive  the  delegates  of 
said  synod,  as  soon  as  they  present  their  credentials  in  due  form. 

On  retiring  from  the  church,  after  the  passage  of  this 
resolution.  Dr.  Seiss,  as  chairman  of  the  delegation,  stated 
that  ''  the  delegates  distinctly  declare  that  their  act  in  no 
sense  or  degree  affects  the  relations  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Synod  to  the  General  Synod  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Church  in  the  United  States  "  ;  and  the  president,  Dr.  J. 
A.  Brown,  replied  that  "  this  body  has  not  decided  at  any 
time  that  the  Pennsylvania  Synod  was  out  of  the  General 
Synod."  A  few  weeks  afterward,  the  Ministerium  of 
Pennsylvania,  at  its  one  hundred  and  nineteenth  conven- 
tion, at  Lancaster,  declared  its  connection  with  the  Gen- 
eral Synod  dissolved,  adding  to  the  unjust  deprival  of 
rights,  as  a  reason  for  such  dissolution,  "  the  conviction 
that  the  task  of  uniting  the  conflicting  elements  in  the 
.  General  Synod  has  become  hopeless." 

The  process  of  disintegration  continued.  The  New 
York  Ministerium,  Pittsburg  Synod,  English  Synod  of 
Ohio,  Illinois,  Minnesota,  and  Texas  synods  followed.  The 
Texas  had  been  the  only  Southern  synod  remaining,  its 
exclusively  German  character  having  separated  it  from 
the  other  Southern  synods.  The  General  Synod  had  lost 
about  half  of  its  strength.  At  its  next  convention  (1868) 
its  reports  show  a  total  of  86,198  communicants  and  590 
ministers.  Instead  of  comprising  two  thirds  of  the  Lu- 
therans in  America,  as  it  did  in  i860,  it  numbered  in  1868 
only  one  fourth,  the  great  growth  of  the  Missouri  and  other 


SYNODICAL    CHANGES.  467 

synods,  that  never  were  in  the  General  Synod,  being  a 
factor  that  should  not  be  overlooked. 

There  was  a  disintegration  of  synods  as  well  as  of  the 
General  Synod.  A  number  of  the  pastors  and  congrega- 
tions of  the  New  York  Ministerium  left  that  body  when 
it  left  the  General  Synod,  and  formed  the  New  York 
Synod,  which  was  assigned  the  place  on  the  roll  of  the 
General  Synod  previously  occupied  by  the  ministerium. 
A  minority  of  the  Illinois  formed  the  Central  Illinois 
Synod.  When,  in  1867,  the  Pittsburg  Synod,  by  a  vote 
of  sixty-three  to  twenty-one,  adopted  the  ''Fundamental 
Principles  of  Faith"  proposed  for  the  General  Council,  ten 
pastors  and  seven  lay  delegates  withdrew,  upon  the  ground 
that  by  such  action  the  constitution  of  the  synod  was  vio- 
lated, and,  with  a  few  additions,  afterward  claimed  the 
name  and  were  recognized  by  the  General  Synod  as  the 
Pittsburg  Synod.  Congregations  were  also  changing  their 
relations.  While  the  events  were  in  progress  that  culmi- 
nated at  Fort  Wayne,  a  number  of  the  English  Lutheran 
congregations  in  Philadelphia  and  the  neighborhood  (St. 
Mark's,  St.  John's,  St.  Luke's,  Trinity)  entered  the  Minis- 
terium of  Pennsylvania.  The  church  in  which  the  battle 
had  been  fought  entered  the  Pittsburg  Synod  of  the  Gen- 
eral Council.  Other  churches  passed  from  the  Ministe- 
rium of  Pennsylvania  into  the  East  Pennsylvania  Synod, 
congregations  as  a  rule  following  the  inclination  of  pas- 
tors. Elsewhere,  congregations  were  divided,  and  trouble- 
some and  expensive  lawsuits  begun  by  rival  claimants  for 
the  property  (Pittsburg,  Leechburg,*  Williamsport,  Allen- 
town). 

The  continuance  of  cooperation  in  Pennsylvania  College, 
Gettysburg,  Pa.,  by  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania, 
ceased  in  1867,  when  Muhlenberg  College  at  Allentown, 
Pa.,  was  founded,  with  Dr.  F.  A.  Muhlenberg  as  its  first 


468  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxv. 

president  The  Publication  Society  lost  from  its  board 
many  who  had  hitherto  been  most  active  in  its  interests. 
The  separation  was  far  more  complete  than  during  thirty 
years  before  1853,  when  the  mother-synod  was  not  repre- 
sented in  the  General  Synod. 

Looking  back  at  the  contest  at  Fort  Wayne,  after  an 
interval  of  nearly  a  generation,  it  seems  at  first  sight  to 
have  been  one  mainly  of  parliamentary  fencing.  But 
back  of  this  there  were  certain  principles  at  stake.  One 
of  these  was  as  to  the  power  and  sphere  of  the  general 
body  in  its  relation  to  the  district  synods.  Two  concep- 
tions of  church  polity  characterized  the  two  sides.  The 
majority  at  Fort  Wayne  stood  for  a  centralization  of  power 
in  the  General  Synod.  As  the  ultimate  court  of  appeal, 
its  decision  was  to  be  final,  and  to  this  decision  the  district 
synods  were  to  submit.  According  to  the  conception  of 
the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  a  general  church  organi- 
zation was  only  a  conference  of  a  mainly  advisory  charac- 
ter, whose  decisions  required  the  ratification  of  the  synods 
united  in  the  body.  The  lessons  of  the  war  were  fresh. 
The  increased  centralization  of  power  in  the  national  gov- 
ernment gained  in  that  conflict,  and  the  weakening  of  the 
theory  of  States'  rights,  seemed  to  give  encouragement  to 
an  application  of  the  principle  within  the  ecclesiastical 
sphere.  The  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  always  jealous 
of  its  rights,  would  have  speedily  reversed  the  concessions 
of  its  delegates,  had  they  in  any  way  yielded  on  this  point. 
The  life  of  the  old  synod  could  not  be  merged  or  lost  in 
that  of  any  general  organization.  It  was  ready  harmo- 
niously to  cooperate  with  other  synods  in  a  general  body, 
provided  that  body  would  not  attempt  to  interfere  with 
the  independent  synodical  development  of  the  ministerium. 
The  result,  within  the  General  Synod,  of  the  events  at 
Fort  Wayne  was  the  weakening  of  the  synodical  and  the 


TIVO    THEORIES   OF  POLITY.  469 

strengthening  of  the  general  organization.  From  that  time 
the  district  synods  have  Httle  significance,  and  the  interest 
is  almost  entirely  centered  in  the  General  Synod.  When 
compared  with  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  the  Gen- 
eral Synod  is  one  synod,  the  district  synods  corresponding 
to  the  conferences  of  the  mother-synod.  The  difference 
of  theory  as  to  the  relations  of  the  General  Synod  to  its 
districts  also  involves  a  different  conception  of  the  rela- 
tions of  the  synods  to  the  congregations.  The  doctrinal 
differences  with  respect  to  the  relation  to  the  Augsburg 
Confession  bore  a  very  important  relation  to  the  contro- 
versy. But  this  issue  was  not  separated  from  that  per- 
taining to  church  government,  and  the  mingling  of  the 
two  questions  seriously  affected  the  result.  Many  re- 
garded the  real  conflict  to  be  concerning  an  insubordinate 
synod  which  refused  to  recognize  the  higher  authority  of 
the  general  organization,  and  which,  like  the  seceded 
States,  they  thought,  should  be  coerced  into  due  respect 
for  those  placed  over  it.  But  neither  in  founding  the 
General  Synod  nor  in  reentering  it  did  the  ministerium 
have  any  such  conception  of  the  powers  of  a  general  or- 
ganization. 

It  has  been  from  a  very  early  period  the  policy  of  the 
General  Synod  to  increase  its  power  by  encouraging  the 
multiplication  of  small  synods.  This  it  has  done  by  deny- 
ing to  the  larger  synods  the  same  ratio  of  representation  as 
is  allowed  the  smaller  synods.  Were  the  Ministerium  of 
Pennsylvania  with  its  1 15,000  communicants  to-day  united 
with  the  General  Synod,  it  would  be  allowed  only  nine 
delegates  of  each  rank,  while  the  other  synods  now  in  the 
body  with  a  communicant  mem.bership  of  only  38,000  more 
were  represented  at  the  last  convention  by  one  hundred  and 
seven  clerical,  and  were  entitled  to  as  many  lay,  delegates. 
This  results  in  numerous  small  synods,  several  of  them 


470  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxv. 

having  fewer  communicants  than  some  of  the  parishes  of 
the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania.  When  the  great  hold 
which  the  mother-synod,  with  its  history  of  nearly  a  cent- 
ury and  a  quarter  back  of  it,  had  upon  its  congregations, 
and  the  relatively  little  impression  which  the  comparatively 
young  general  body,  in  the  short  period  of  their  connec- 
tion with  it,  had  made  upon  them  are  considered,  and  when 
to  this  is  added  that  even  among  the  ministers  there  had 
been  all  along  a  very  large  minority  averse  to  the  General 
Synod,  and  that  those  sent  as  delegates  were,  as  a  rule, 
the  warm  friends  of  the  General  Synod,  contending  for  it 
as  earnestly  in  the  ministerium  as  they  had  to  contend  for 
the  rights  of  the  ministerium  on  the  floor  of  the  General 
Synod,  it  can  be  seen  that,  even  if  the  issue  at  Fort 
Wayne  had  been  deferred,  this  disproportion  would  not 
have  been  long  acquiesced  in.  It  is  not  at  all  probable 
that  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  would  have  been 
content  to  divide  into  eight  or  ten  synods,  and  surrender 
its  historical  advantages,  and  its  own  modes  of  church  op- 
erations— the  outgrowth  of  an  experience  three  times  as 
long  as  that  of  the  general  body — for  the  purpose  of  gain- 
ing proportionate  representation.  Tlie  most  that  could 
have  been  anticipated  would  have  been  a  mere  tolerance 
of  the  union,  with  general  apathy  as  to  its  results.  To- 
day the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  has  a  much  stronger 
hold  upon  its  people  than  the  General  Council  has. 
Thirty  years  ago  the  General  Synod  represented  to  them 
still  less,  because  of  the  widespread  but  silent  dissatisfac- 
tion with  the  union  formed  by  a  very  small  majority  in 

1853. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

THE    ERA    OF    RECONSTRUCTION    (1867-77). 

No  sooner  had  the  separation  been  effected  than  a 
movement  toward  a  new  union  was  found  to  have  begun. 
No  one  entertained  the  thought  of  permanent  isolation. 
The  synods  which  held  to  a  strict  interpretation  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  and  which  had  kept  aloof  from  the 
General  Synod  because  of  its  alleged  indeterminate  posi- 
tion, might,  it  was  thought,  if  united  into  an  organization, 
yet  control  the  future  of  the  entire  church  in  America, 
The  conflict  of  the  ministerium  had  been  watched  with  the 
deepest  interest.  Assurances  of  sympathy  came  from 
many  directions.  During  the  sessions  of  the  General 
Synod  a  number  of  the  delegates  from  Pennsylvania  had 
received  the  communion  from  Dr.  Sihler,  of  the  Missouri 
Synod.  There  was  doubtless  an  earnest,  but  at  the  same 
time  a  vague,  desire  for  the  union  of  all  who  were  clear  in 
the  confession  of  the  distinctively  Lutheran  faith. 

When  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  passed  resolu- 
tions approving  the  course  of  its  delegates  at  Fort  Wayne, 
it  added  one  providing  for  a  committee  to  correspond  with 
other  Lutheran  synods  with  reference  to  the  calling  of  a 
convention  for  the  organization  of  a  general  ecclesiastical 
body,  "on  a  truly  Lutheran  basis."  The  invitation  was 
afterward  ordered  to  be  sent ''  to  all  Evangelical  Lutheran 
synods,  ministers,  and  congregations  in  the  United  States 
and  Canadas  which  confess  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Con- 
fession." 

471 


472  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxvi. 

In  response  to  this  invitation,  a  convention  assembled  in 
Trinity  Church,  Reading,  December  12-14,  1866.  Thir- 
teen synods  were  represented.  Five  (Pennsylvania,  English 
Ohio,  New  York,  Pittsburg,  and  Minnesota)  had  been  in 
the  General  Synod.  The  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio,  as  well  as 
its  English  District  Synod,  the  Wisconsin,  Michigan,  Ger- 
man Iowa,  Canada,  Norwegian,  and  even  the  Missouri 
Synod,  had  sent  delegates.  Drs.  Walther  and  Sihler,  of 
the  Missouri  Synod,  sent  a  friendly  communication.  The 
opening  sermon  was  preached  by  Rev.  Dr.  Loy,  of  the 
Joint  Synod  of  Ohio.  Rev.  G.  Bassler,  of  the  Pittsburg 
Synod,  presided.  The  chief  business  of  the  convention 
was  the  discussion  and  adoption  of  theses  prepared  by 
Dr.  C.  P.  Krauth,  setting  forth  the  fundamental  principles 
of  faith  and  church  polity  as  the  basis  of  the  proposed 
organization.  These  theses  were  unanimously  adopted. 
Their  adoption  by  a  synod  was  made  an  indispensable 
requisite  for  its  admission  into  the  proposed  body.  The 
principles  thus  unanimously  approved  by  the  representa- 
tives of  the  majority  of  Lutherans  in  this  country,  and 
which  are  presupposed  in  a  union  with  the  General  Coun- 
cil, are  as  follows : 

PRINCIPLES    OF   FAITH   AND   CHURCH   POLITY. 

Of  Faith. 

■  I.  There  must  be  and  abide  through  all  time  one  holy  Christian  Church, 
which  is  the  assembly  of  all  believers,  among  whom  the  gospel  is  purely 
preached,  and  the  holy  sacraments  are  administered,  as  the  gospel  demands. 

To  the  true  unity  of  the  church  it  is  sufficient  that  there  be  agreement 
touching  the  doctrine  of  the  gospel,  that  it  be  preached  in  one  accord,  in  its 
pure  sense,  and  that  the  sacraments  be  administered  conformably  to  God's 
Word. 

II.  The  true  unity  of  a  particular  church,  in  virtue  of  which  men  are  truly 
members  of  one  and  the  same  church,  and  by  which  any  church  abides  in  real 
identity,  and  is  entitled  to  a  continuation  of  her  name,  is  unity  in  doctrine  and 
faith  and  in  the  sacraments,  to  wit :  that  she  continues  to  teach  and  to  set 


PRINCIPLES   OF  GENERAL    COUNCIL.  473 

forth,  and  that  her  true  members  embrace  from  the  heart,  and  use,  the  arti- 
cles of  faith  and  the  sacraments  as  they  were  held  and  administered  when  the 
church  came  into  distinctive  being  and  received  a  distinctive  name. 

III.  The  unity  of  the  church  is  witnessed  to,  and  made  manifest  in,  the 
solemn,  public,  and  official  confessions  which  are  set  forth,  to  wit :  the  ge- 
neric unity  of  the  Christian  Church  in  the  general  creeds,  and  the  specific 
unity  of  pure  parts  of  the  Christian  Church  in  their  specific  creeds  ;  one  chief 
object  of  both  classes  of  which  creeds  is,  that  Christians  who  are  in  the  unity 
of  faith  may  know  each  other  as  such,  and  may  have  a  visible  bond  of  fellow- 
ship. 

IV.  That  confessions  may  be  such  a  testimony  of  unity  and  bond  of  union, 
they  must  be  accepted  in  every  statement  of  doctrine  in  their  own  true,  native, 
original,  and  only  sense.  Those  who  set  them  forth  and  subscribe  them  must 
not  only  agree  to  use  the  same  words,  but  must  use  and  understand  those 
words  in  one  and  the  same  sense. 

V.  The  unity  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  as  a  portion  of  the  holy 
Christian  Church,  depends  upon  her  abiding  in  one  and  the  same  faith,  in 
confessing  which  she  obtained  her  distinctive  being  and  name,  her  political 
recognition,  and  her  history. 

VI.  The  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  is  by  preeminence  the  confession 
of  that  faith.  The  acceptance  of  its  doctrines  and  the  avowal  of  them  with- 
out equivocation  or  mental  reservation  make,  mark,  and  identify  that  church, 
which  alone  in  the  true,  original,  historical,  and  honest  sense  of  the  term  is 
the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church. 

VII.  The  only  churches,  therefore,  of  any  land,  which  are  properly  in  the 
unity  of  that  communion,  and  by  consequence  entitled  to  its  name,  Evangeli- 
cal Lutheran,  are  those  which  sincerely  hold  and  truthfully  confess  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession. 

VIII.  We  accept  and  acknowledge  the  doctrines  of  the  Unaltered  Augs- 
burg Confession  in  its  original  sense  as  throughout  in  conformity  with  the 
pure  truth  of  which  God's  Word  is  the  only  rule.  We  accept  its  statements 
of  truth  as  in  perfect  accordance  with  the  canonical  Scriptures  ;  we  reject  the 
errors  it  condemns,  and  believe  that  all  which  it  commits  to  the  liberty  of  the 
church  of  right  belongs  to  that  liberty. 

IX.  In  thus  formally  accepting  and  acknowledging  the  Unaltered  Augs- 
burg Confession  we  declare  our  conviction  that  the  other  confessions  of  the 
Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  inasmuch  as  they  set  forth  none  other  than  its 
system  of  doctrine  and  articles  of  faith,  are  of  necessity  pure  and  Scriptural. 
Preeminent  among  such  accordant,  pure,  and  Scriptural  statements  of  doc- 
trine, by  their  intrinsic  excellence,  by  the  great  and  necessary  ends  for  which 
they  were  prepared,  by  their  historical  position,  and  by  the  general  judgment 
of  the  church,  are  these:  the  Apology  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  the 
Smalcald  Articles,  the  Catechisms  of  Luther,  and  the  Formula  of  Concord ; 
all  of  which  are,  with  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession,  in  the  perfect 
harmony  of  one  and  the  same  Scriptural  faith. 


474  ^-^-^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxvi. 

Of  Ecclesiastical  Power  and  Church  Governuient. 

I.  All  power  in  the  church  belongs  primarily,  properly,  and  exclusively  to 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  "  true  God,  begotten  of  the  Father  from  eternity,  and 
true  man,  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,"  Mediator  between  God  and  men,  and 
Supreme  Head  of  the  church.  This  supreme  and  direct  power  is  not  delegated 
to  any  man  or  body  of  men  upon  earth. 

II.  All  just  power  exercised  by  the  church  has  been  committed  to  her  for 
the  furtherance  of  the  gospel,  through  the  Word  and  sacraments,  is  condi- 
tioned by  this  end,  and  is  derivative  and  pertains  to  her  as  the  servant  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

The  church,  therefore,  has  no  power  to  bind  the  conscience,  except  as  she 
truly  teaches  what  her  Lord  teaches,  and  faithfully  commands  what  he  has 
charged  her  to  command. 

in.  The  absolute  directory  of  the  will  of  Christ  is  the  Word  of  God,  the 
canonical  Scriptures,  interpreted  in  accordance  with  the  "  mind  of  the  Spirit," 
by  which  Scriptures  the  church  is  to  be  guided  in  every  decision.  She  may 
set  forth  no  article  of  faith  which  is  not  taught  by  the  very  letter  of  God's 
Word,  or  derived  by  just  and  necessary  inference  from  it,  and  her  liberty 
concerns  those  things  only  which  are  left  free  by  the  letter  and  spirit  of  God's 
Word. 

IV.  The  primary  bodies  through  which  the  power  is  normally  exercised, 
which  Christ  commits  derivatively  and  ministerially  to  his  church  on  earth, 
are  the  congregations.  The  congregation,  in  the  normal  state,  is  neither  the 
pastor  without  the  people,  nor  the  people  without  the  pastor. 

V.  In  congregations  exists  the  right  of  representation.  In  addition  to  the 
pastor,  who  by  their  voluntary  election  is  already  ex  officio  their  representa- 
tive, the  people  have  the  right  to  choose  representatives  from  their  own 
number  to  act  for  them,  under  such  constitutional  limitations  as  the  congrega- 
tion approves. 

VI.  The  representatives  of  congregations  thus  convened  in  synod,  and 
acting  in  accordance  with  those  conditions  of  mutual  congregational  compact 
which  are  called  a  constitution,  are  for  the  ends,  and  with  the  limitations  de- 
fined in  it,  representatively,  the  congregations  themselves. 

A  free,  Scriptural  general  council  or  synod,  chosen  by  the  church,  is, 
within  the  metes  and  bounds  fixed  by  the.  church  which  chooses  it,  represent- 
atively that  church  itself ;  and  in  this  case  is  applicable  to  the  language  of 
the  Appendix  to  the  Smalcald  Articles  :  "  The  judgments  of  synods  are  the 
judgments  of  the  church." 

VII.  The  congregations  representatively  constituting  the  various  district 
synods  may  elect  delegates  through  those  synods  to  represent  themselves  in 
a  more  general  body,  all  decisions  of  which,  when  made  in  conformity  with 
the  solemn  compact  of  the  constitution,  bind,  so  far  as  the  terms  of  mutual 
agreement  make  them  binding,  those  congregations  which  consent,  and  con- 
tinue to  consent,  to  be  represented  in  that  general  body. 


PRINCIPLES   OF  GENERAL   COUNCIL.  475 

VIII.  If  the  final  decision  of  any  general  body  thus  constituted  shall  seem 
to  any  synod  within  it  in  conflict  with  the  faith,  involving  violation  of  the 
rights  of  conscience,  it  is  the  duty  of  that  synod  to  take  such  steps  as  shall 
be  needed  to  prevent  a  compromise  on  its  part  with  error.  To  this  end  it 
may  withdraw  itself  from  relations  which  make  it  responsible  for  departure 
from  the  faith  of  the  gospel,  or  for  an  equivocal  attitude  toward  it.  Such 
steps  should  not  be  taken  on  any  but  well-defined  grounds  of  conscience,  not 
on  mere  suspicion,  nor  until  prayerful,  earnest,  and  repeated  efforts  to  correct 
the  wrong  have  proved  useless,  and  no  remedy  remains  but  withdrawal. 

IX.  The  obligation  under  which  congregations  consent  to  place  themselves 
to  conform  to  the  decisions  of  synods  does  not  rest  on  any  assumption  that 
synods  are  infallible,  but  on  the  supposition  that  the  decisions  have  been  so 
guarded  by  wise  constitutional  provisions  as  to  create  a  higher  moral  proba- 
bility of  their  being  true  and  rightful  than  the  decisions  in  conflict  with  them 
which  may  be  made  by  single  congregations  or  individuals.  All  final  deci- 
sions should  be  guarded  with  the  utmost  care,  so  that  they  shall  in  no  case 
claim  without  just  grounds  to  be  the  judgment  of  those  congregations  in 
whose  name  and  by  whose  authority  they  are  made ;  in  the  absence  of  which 
just  grounds  they  are  null  and  void. 

X.  In  the  formation  of  a  general  body  the  synods  may  know  and  deal  with 
each  other  only  as  synods.  In  such  case  the  official  record  is  to  be  accepted 
as  evidence  of  the  doctrinal  position  of  each  synod,  and  of  the  principles  for 
which  alone  the  other  synods  become  responsible  by  connection  with  it. 

XI.  The  leading  objects  for  which  synods  should  be  organized  are : 

1.  The  maintenance  and  diffusion  of 'sound  doctrine,  as  the  same  is  taught 
in  God's  Word  and  confessed  in  the  authorized  standards  of  the  church. 

2.  When  controversies  arise  in  regard  to  articles  of  faith,  to  decide  them 
in  accordance  with  God's  Word  and  the  pure  confessions  of  that  Word. 

3.  That  proper  regulation  of  the  human  externals  of  worship,  that  the 
same,  in  character  and  administration,  may  be  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of 
the  New  Testament  and  with  the  liberty  of  the  church,  and  may  edify  the 
body  of  Christ. 

4.  The  maintenance  of  pure  discipline,  to  the  fostering  of  holiness  and 
fidelity  in  the  ministry  and  people. 

5.  The  devising  and  executing  of  wise  and  Scriptural  counsels  and  plans 
for  carrying  on  the  work  of  the  church  in  every  department  of  beneficent 
labor  for  the  souls  and  bodies  of  men,  at  home  and  abroad. 

6.  All  these  things  are  to  be  done  that  the  saving  power  of  the  gospel  may 
be  realized,  that  good  order  may  be  maintained,  and  that  all  unsoundness  in 
faith  and  life  may  be  averted,  that  God  may  be  glorified,  and  that  Christ  our 
King  may  rule  in  a  pure,  peaceful,  and  active  church. 

Thirteen  synods  were  represented  when,  on  November 
20,  1867,  the  first  convention  of  the  General  Council  as- 


476  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxvl. 

sembled  at  Fort  Wayne,  Ind.,  in  the  church  where  the 
General  Synod  had  held  its  sessions  the  preceding  year. 
They  were  :  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  English  Ohio,  Pitts- 
burg, Wisconsin,  German  Iowa,  English  District  of  Ohio, 
Michigan,  Scandinavian  Augustana,  Minnesota,  Canada, 
lUinois,  and  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio.  Two  of  these  synods 
stood  in  a  peculiar  relation  to  the  new  body.  The  Joint 
Synod  of  Ohio  had  not  adopted  the  proposed  constitution, 
while  the  delegates  of  the  Iowa  Synod,  before  the  sessions 
were  ended,  felt  themselves  constrained  to  declare  that 
they  did  not  regard  their  synod  ready  to  enter  into  full 
connection  with  the  General  Council.  A  provision,  how- 
ever, was  introduced  into  the  constitution  by  which  the 
representatives  of  synods  adopting  the  "  Fundamental 
Principles  of  Faith  and  Church  Polity  "  could  have  the 
privilege  of  debate.  For  nearly  twenty  years  the  Synod 
of  Iowa  availed  itself  of  this  privilege.  The  difficulties 
that  interfered  with  the  full  union  of  these  synods  occa- 
sioned the  subsequent  withdrawal  of  others,  and  have  con- 
tinued to  agitate  the  council  throughout  its  entire  history. 
They  are  indicated  in  the  paper  presented  at  the  first 
convention,  by  the  representatives  of  the  Joint  Synod  of 
Ohio,  introducing  the  noted  ''four  points."  These  are 
the  questions  concerning  chiliasm,  secret  societies,  pulpit 
and  altar  fellowship.  The  first  point  was  not  urged  by 
Iowa.  On  this  subject  it  had  had  its  controversy  with 
Missouri.  The  synods  that  urged  the  question  upon  the 
General  Council  did  so  under  the  constraint  placed  upon 
them  by  their  relations  to  Missouri.  Dr.  J.  A.  Seiss,  of 
the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  had  written  learnedly 
and  extensively  on  eschatological  subjects,  and,  with  many 
eminent  theologians  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  had  taught 
that  the  advent  of  Christ  would  be  pre-millennial ;  and  it 
was  well  known  that  there  were  others  who  shared  in  this 


THE  FOUR  POINTS.  477 

Opinion.  It  had  been  maintained  that  Art.  XVII.  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession  expressly  rejected  all  such  teach- 
ing, and  it,  therefore,  could  not  be  admitted.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  was  urged  that  the  clear  purpose  of  the 
article  was  to  counteract  certain  extravagances  of  con- 
temporary errorists,  and  that  it  was  not  applicable  to 
other  forms  of  chiliasm.  After  the  Pittsburg  Declara- 
tion of  1868 — *' The  General  Council  has  neither  had, 
nor  would  consent  to  have,  fellowship  with  any  synod 
which  tolerates  the  'Jewish  opinions  '  or  chiliastic  opinions 
condemned  in  the  seventeenth  article  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession" — the  council  has  not  been  disturbed  on  this 
topic. 

The  second  question,  concerning  ''secret  societies,"  was 
much  more  troublesome.  It  did  not  properly  belong 
to  the  sphere  of  faith,  but  to  that  of  church  discipline. 
The  charge  was  made  that  in  congregations  belong- 
ing to  synods  in  the  General  Council  there  were  mem- 
bers of  organizations  that  in  their  worship  denied  Christ, 
imposed  oaths  contrary  to  God's  Word,  and  interfered 
with  the  law  of  Christian  benevolence  as  established  in  the 
church ;  and  the  demand  was  made  that  rigid  discipline 
be  exercised  upon  such  members,  absolutely  excluding 
from  communion  all  w^ho  persisted  in  retaining  member- 
ship in  such  societies.  This  demand  was  not  one  peculiar 
to  some  Lutherans.  It  is  enforced  with  all  strictness  by 
the  United  Presbyterians,  and  some  other  Presbyterian 
bodies.  In  answer  to  the  request  that  the  General 
Council  give  its  testimony  on  this  subject,  the  answer  was 
made  in  1868  : 


I.  Though  mere  secrecy  in  association  be  not  in  itself  immoral,  yet  as  it 
is  so  easily  susceptible  of  abuse,  and  in  its  abuse  may  work,  as  it  has  often 
worked,  great  mischief  in  family,  church,  and  state,  we  earnestly  beseech  all 
good  men  to  ponder  the  question  whether   the  benefits  they  believe  to  be 


478  THE  LUTHERANS,  [Chap.  xxvi. 

connected  with  secret  societies  might  not  be  equally  reached  in  modes  not 
liable  to  the  same  abuse. 

2.  Any  and  all  societies  for  moral  and  religious  ends  which  do  not  rest  on 
the  suj:)reme  authority  of  God's  holy  Word  as  contained  in  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  which  do  not  recognize  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  true  God 
and  the  only  Mediator  between  God  and  man,  which  teach  doctrines  or  have 
usages  or  forms  of  worship  condemned  in  God's  Word  and  in  the  confessions 
of  his  church,  which  assume  to  themselves  what  God  has  given  to  his  church 
and  its  ministers,  which  require  undefined  obligations  to  be  assumed  by 
oath,  are  unchristian,  and  we  solemnly  warn  our  members  and  ministers 
against  all  fellowship  with,  or  connivance  at,  associations  which  have  this 
character. 

3.  All  connection  with  infidel  and  immoral  associations  we  consider  as  re- 
quiring the  exercise  of  prompt  and  decisive  discipline,  and,  after  faithful  and 
patient  monition  and  teaching  from  God's  Word,  the  cutting  off  the  persist- 
ent and  obstinate  offender  from  the  communion  of  the  church,  until  he 
abandons  them  and  shows  a  true  repentance. 

Especially  has  the  Swedish  Aiigustana  Synod  enforced 
church  discipline  upon  this  point.  But  this  synod  had  to 
deal  with  a  new  population  in  this  country,  while  the  older 
synods  are  embarrassed  by  the  fact  that  for  generations 
there  was  no  warning  given  by  the  Lutheran  Church 
against  irreligious  societies,  and  the  encouragement  given 
them  by  pastors  as  well  as  members  of  some  other  relig- 
ious communions  readily  spread  among  those  in  our  own 
churches  who  did  not  fully  understand  their  character. 
Even  the  Missouri  Synod,  with  its  emphatic  testimony 
against  them,  has  found  it  best  to  temper  its  zeal  with 
discretion.^  Under  the  testimony  the  General  Council 
has  given,  the  interest  in  these  societies  and  the  number 
of  their  members  in  the  churches  has  greatly  decreased. 
Absolute  renunciation  of  such  connections  is  a  condition 
of  admission  into  most,  if  not  all,  synods  and  theological 
seminaries.  Conflicts  within  the  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio, 
prior  to  the  formation  of  the  General  Council,  because  of 
the  membership  of  some  pastors  in  these  societies,  explain 

1  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  ix.,  p.  240. 


PULPIT  FELLOWSHIP.  479 

partially  the  prominence  which  this  question  assumed  at 
Fort  Wayne  and  Pittsburg, 

The  practice,  hitherto  customary  in  the  Eastern  synods, 
that  the  clerical  members  preach  in  the  pulpits  of  other 
churches  during  the  sessions  of  the  synod,  was  not  re- 
garded with  favor  by  the  representatives  of  the  Western 
synods.  They  held  it  to  be  fellowship  with  error,  and  to 
indicate  a  lack  of  earnestness  in  holding  and  maintaining 
the  confessional  distinction.  It  implied,  they  thought,  the 
obligation  to  suppress  in  preaching  all  statements  of  doc- 
trine conflicting  with  the  confessions  of  the  congrega- 
tions to  which  the  Lutheran  pastor  preached.  It  recog- 
nized these  congregations  as  Christian  churches  in  a  sense 
that  they  were  not.  The  only  circumstance,  some  held, 
under  w^hich  a  Lutheran  minister  could  preach  consist- 
ently in  a  non-Lutheran  pulpit,  w^ould  be  when  he  would 
undertake  to  expose  and  attack  the  errors  he  beHeved  to 
be  taught  in  the  regular  preaching  from  that  pulpit.  They 
urged  that  it  was  dishonorable  to  accept  an  invitation  to 
preach  without  being  willing  to  return  the  compliment, 
unless  a  statement  to  this  effect  were  made  at  the  time. 
This  position  the  American-born  pastors  and  the  Swedes 
and  some  of  the  Germans  could  not  absolutely  concede. 
They  acknowledged  the  truth  lying  at  the  basis  of  the 
demands,  but  could  not  regard  the  inferences  of  fellowship 
or  indifference  to  error,  etc.,  as  valid.  Hence  the  decla- 
ration at  Pittsburg  was : 

'*  Lutheran  ministers  may  properly  preach  wherever 
there  is  an  opening  in  the  pulpit  of  other  churches,  unless 
the  circumstances  imply,  or  seem  to  imply,  a  fellowship 
with  error  or  schism,  or  a  restriction  on  the  unreserved 
expression  of  the  whole  counsel  of  God." 

What  those  circumstances  are  have  necessarily  to  be 
left,  as  they  arise,  to  the  conscientious  judgment  of  pastors 


48o  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxvi. 

when  called  to  meet  such  appointments.  The  other  side 
of  "  Exchange  of  Pulpits  "  was  met  by  affirming  that  **  no 
man  shall  be  admitted  to  our  pulpits,  whether  of  the  Lu- 
theran name  or  of  any  other,  of  whom  there  is  just  reason 
to  doubt  whether  he  will  preach  the  pure  truth  of  God's 
Word  as  taught  in  the  confessions  of  our  Church." 

The  so-called  **  General  Invitation  "  to  the  holy  com- 
munion, which  had  entered  some  of  the  English  Lutheran 
hturgies,  beginning  with  that  of  the  New  York  Ministe- 
rium  of  1814,  was  in  many  respects  not  in  harmony  with 
Lutheran  principles.  It  was  in  direct  violation  of  the 
Lutheran  practice,  which  provided  that  only  those  should 
commune  who  had  been  previously  at  the  confessional 
service  or  the  preparatory  service.  It  made  those  desiring 
to  commune  the  judge  of  their  own  fitness  for  the  com- 
munion, or  of  the  evangelical  character  of  the  denomina- 
tion whence  they  came.  It  entirely  removed  the  church's 
opportunity  and  right  to  judge  who  should  approach  her 
altars.  It  undermined  church  authority  and  church  dis- 
cipline. It  proclaimed  the  indifference  of  the  pastor  and 
congregation  to  the  doctrine  concerning  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per held  by  the  communicant.  In  antagonizing  the  abuses 
connected  with  this  practice,  the  right  wing  demanded  that 
only  those  should  be  admitted  to  the  Holy  Supper  who 
were  members  of  Lutheran  churches.  The  denial  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  they  urged,  in  no  way  implied  the  denial 
of  the  Christian  character  of  those  not  admitted.  It  only 
meant  that  their  relation  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  was  not  such  as  would  give  the  assurance  that  they 
would  receive  the  promised  benefit  from  it.  On  this  topic, 
the  official  action  decides  that  heretics  and  fundamental 
errorists  are  to  be  excluded,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  pas- 
tor to  examine  those  who  apply  for  the  communion,  that  in 
rejecting  errors  the  Lutheran  Church  does  not  condemn 


THE   AKRON  DECLARATION.  48  I 

those  who  err  from  simplicity,  but  that  it  teaches  that 
"  among  those  who  are  upon  the  true  foundation,  there 
are  many  weak  ones  who  have  built  upon  the  foundation 
perishing  stubble." 

This  statement  of  principles  did  not  satisfy.  Ohio's 
quasi-relation  ceased  after  the  first  meeting.  Wisconsin 
withdrew  after  the  second,  and  Minnesota  and  Illinois 
after  the  fourth  meeting.  Iowa  kept  its  place  on  the 
floor,  and  with  great  ability  urged  the  strictest  confes- 
sional position,  through  the  brothers  Drs.  Sigismund 
and  Gottfried  Fritschel,  the  former  being  rarely  absent 
from  the  sessions.  Michigan  continued  its  protest  against 
any  allowance  of  exceptions  to  the  principle  involved, 
until  it  left  the  General  Council  in  1887.  From  the  New 
York  Ministerium  there  came  also  a  strong  pressure  for 
stricter  and  more  definite  regulations.  There  was  no  little 
irritation,  as  well  as  dissatisfaction,  on  the  part  of  many 
Americans,  at  this  persistent  agitation,  implying,  as  they 
felt,  a  distrust  of  the  clear  affirmations  that  had  already 
been  made.  At  Akron,  in  1872,  in  the  course  of  some 
remarks  upon  the  subject.  Dr.  Krauth  incidentally  de- 
clared :  ''  The  rule  is :  Lutheran  pulpits  are  for  Lutheran 
ministers  only ;  Lutheran  altars  are  for  Lutheran  com- 
municants only."  As  it  was  declared  that  the  indorse- 
ment of  this  statement  by  the  General  Council  would  be 
all  that  was  desired,  it  was  adopted,  and  is  known  as  the 
Akron  Declaration,  with  the  following  additions,  also  pro- 
posed by  Dr.  Krauth  :  '*  The  exceptions  to  the  rule  belong 
to  the  sphere  of  privilege,  not  of  right.  The  determi- 
nation of  the  exceptions  is  to  be  made  in  consonance  with 
these  principles  by  the  conscientious  judgment  of  pastors, 
as  the  cases  arise."  This  was  not  offered  as  a  statement 
which  the  mover  regarded  necessary,  beyond  what  had 
been  previously  adopted,  but  only  to  meet  the  demands 


482  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxvi. 

of  those  clamoring  for  an  additional  declaration.  It  at- 
tracted comparatively  little  attention,  since  it  was  simply 
a  series  of  truisms  which  every  one  acknowledged.  It  is 
manifestly  the  duty  of  every  church,  and  of  that  church 
alone,  to  decide  upon  the  qualifications  of  those  who  are 
to  preach  in  its  pulpits  and  commune  at  its  altars.  But 
even  this,  it  was  urged,  was  too  indefinite. 

At  Galesburg,  111.,  in  1875,  the  Akron  Declaration  was 
reaffirmed  with  a  defining  clause  :  "  The  rule  which  accords 
with  the  Word  of  God  and  the  confessions  of  our  church." 
There  was  no  opposition  to  its  adoption.  But  after  the  ad- 
journment of  the  council  a  controversy  arose.  The  secular 
and  a  large  portion  of  the  religious  press  throughout  the 
country  spread  far  and  wide  the  reports  of  the  great  illib- 
erality  of  the  General  Council  in  assuming  that  Lutheran 
pulpits  are  for  Lutheran  ministers  only,  etc.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  more  strict  constructionists  triumphed  over  the 
victory  which  they  affirmed  had  been  gained  by  the  inser- 
tion of  the  additional  clause  at  Galesburg,  asserting  that  if 
the  rule  ''  accorded  with  the  Word  of  God,"  no  excep- 
tions whatever  were  admissible.  The  other  side  main- 
tained that  the-  General  Council  did  not  so  mean,  that 
there  was  no  intention  to  reconsider  and  annul  the  other 
sentences  of  the  Akron  Declaration,  and  consequently 
that  the  qualifying  clause  belonged  also  to  them ;  so  that 
both  the  rule  and  the  principle  of  exceptions  accorded  with 
the  Word  of  God.  The  brief  sentence,  which  at  first  struck 
the  ear  so  forcibly,  was  found  to  be  involved  in  ambi- 
guities. The  word  *'  rule  "  was  understood,  on  the  one 
hand,  to  assert  legislatively  what  should  be  done,  but  was 
defined  by  the  author  of  the  statement  as  meaning  ''  mor- 
ally what  ought  to  be  held  as  true,"  **  appealing  to  con- 
science, not  to  disciplinary  authority."  It  was  meant  to 
be    **  not    governmental,    but    educational."     The    word 


THE   GALESBURG   RULE.  483 

"  Lutheran  "  was  variously  understood  as  implying  **  hold- 
ing to  the  Lutheran  faith,"  or  "in  connection  with  a 
Lutheran  congregation,"  or  both.  A  strict  constructionist, 
maintaining  that  the  rule  excluded  all  exceptions,  would 
find  the  justification  of  a  seeming  exception  in  the  fact  that 
it  was  in  the  interest  of  one  who  in  reality  was  a  Lutheran, 
even  though  his  relations  might  seem  to  deny  it.  When  the 
rule  came  before  the  synods  for  action,  there  was  much 
diversity  manifested,  both  in  its  interpretation  and  in  the 
action  concerning  it  which  was  taken.  When  this  was 
reported  to  the  General  Council,  the  result  was  that  the 
president  (Dr.  Krauth)  was  instructed  to  prepare  theses 
for  presentation  to  the  convention  in  Philadelphia,  in  1877. 
This  he  did  with  exhaustive  fullness,  one  hundred  and  five 
theses  having  been  offered,  the  discussion  of  the  first  two 
of  which  occupied  the  most  of  the  time  of  the  meeting. 
The  latest  dehverance  of  the  council  on  the  subject  was 
at  Pittsburg,  in  i 


Inasmuch  as  the  General  Council  has  never  annulled,  rescinded,  or  recon- 
sidered the  declarations  made  at  Akron,  O.,  in  the  year  1872,  they  still  re- 
main, in  all  their  parts  and  provisions,  the  action  and  rule  of  the  General 
Council.  All  subsequent  action  of  the  General  Council  is  to  be  determined 
according  to  the  principles  there  determined  and  settled.  The  true  purport 
and  effect  of  the  action  at  Galesburg  was  to  add  to  the  declaration  at  Akron 
a  statement  of  the  source  of  the  rule,  and  that,  in  all  other  respects,  that  dec- 
laration in  all  its  parts  was  left  unchanged.  The  present  position  of  the 
General  Council  is  to  be  understood  and  interpreted  in  such  manner  that 
neither  the  amendment  and  further  explanation  at  Galesburg,  nor  the  origi- 
nal action  at  Akron,  be  overlooked  or  ignored;  both  of  which  remain  in  full 
force  and  mutually  interpret  and  supplement  one  another. 

While  these  discussions  were  in  progress,  the  General 
Council  was  actively  engaged  in  work  looking  toward  the 
thorough  reorganization  of  the  churches  upon  the  confes- 
sional basis  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  At  the  Reading 
convention  in  1866,  before  the  organization  of  the  coun- 
cil, a  committee  was  appointed  to  cooperate  with  one  of 


484  ^^^^  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxvi. 

the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  that  had  been  engaged 
in  the  preparation  of  the  English  Church  Book ;  and 
another  committee  was  appointed  to  prepare  a  German 
hymn-book.  The  ultimate  result  of  their  labors  was 
first  the  English  Church  Book  of  1868,  which  effected  a 
great  change  in  the  worship  of  the  church,  not  only 
within,  but  also  outside,  the  General  Council.  The  hym- 
nological  part  was  prepared  by  Dr.  B.  M.  Schmucker 
and  Rev.  F.  M.  Bird,  and  revised  by  a  larger  committee. 
The  liturgical  portion  had  the  services  chiefly  of  Dr.  B. 
M.  Schmucker,  Rev.  A.  T.  Geissenhainer,  Drs.  Krauth, 
Seiss,  C.  W.  Schaeffer,  and  Krotel.  This  was  followed  in 
1877  by  the  German  Church  Book  ("  Kirchenbuch  "),  a 
work  whose  high  literary  and  scientific  rank  has  obtained 
due  recognition  from  the  best  liturgical  critics  in  Germany. 
It  had  to  be  constructed  by  the  thorough  study  of  the 
sources  of  hymnology  and  liturgies,  and  is  a  monument  to 
the  learning  and  taste  of  Drs.  A.  Spaeth,  B.  M.  Schmucker, 
S.  Fritschel,  and  E.  F.  Moldenke.  One  of  its  peculiar 
merits  is  the  complete  translation,  presented  for  the  first 
time,  of  the  ancient  church  collects.  The  last  edition  of 
Lohe's  '*  Agende,"  edited  by  Pastor  Deinzer,  and  the 
"  Allgemeines  Gebetbuch  "  of  Leipzig  (pubHshed  by  the 
Lutheran  General  Conference  in  Germany),  have  freely 
appropriated,  with  proper  acknowledgment,  much  that  is 
contained  in  this  book.  Nevertheless,  the  "  Kirchen- 
buch "  had  to  work  its  way  against  much  opposition. 
Many  favorite  hymns  were  ruled  out  by  the  high  standard 
which  the  committee  adopted.  It  was  alleged  that  the 
archaisms  of  some  of  the  hymns  of  the  sixteenth  century 
disqualified  them  for  use  at  the  present  day.  While 
among  congregations  composed  largely  of  northern  Ger- 
mans its  ample  liturgical  services  occasioned  no  difficulty, 
it  encountered  much  opposition  among  southern  Germans, 


THE    CHURCH  BOOK.  485 

especially  among  those  from  Wurtemberg,  where,  from 
the  period  of  the  Reformation,  there  has  been  a  lack  of 
liturgical  interest.  The  demand  for  the  necessary  musical 
material  for  the  proper  rendering  of  the  service  called 
forth  the  books  of  Miss  Krauth  (**  The  Church  Book  with 
Music  ")  and  Dr.  Seiss  ("  Church  Song  ")  for  the  English, 
and  of  Hon.  J.  Endlich  for  the  German  service.  A  begin- 
ning was  made  in  the  reformation  of  the  worship  of  the 
Sunday-school  by  the  publication  of  a  book  in  harmony 
with  the  spirit  and  services  of  the  Church  Book,  edited  by 
Dr.  Seiss. 

A  constitution  for  congregations,  which  might  be  uni- 
versally adopted  or  serve  as  the  model  throughout  the 
General  Council,  was  prepared  and  considered  during 
various  conventions,  until  its  final  adoption  at  Zanesville, 
O.,  in  1879.  As  a  preliminary  principle,  the  question  of 
the  lay  eldership  was  discussed,  and  decided  to  be  with- 
out Scriptural  warrant.  There  has  been  much  dissent  in 
the  synods  concerning  some  of  its  provisions ;  but  the 
General  Council  has  not  seen  fit  to  make  any  amendments, 
as  congregations  are  at  liberty,  if  they  see  fit,  to  adapt  its 
provisions  to  their  circumstances,  provided  this  be  done 
without  violation  of  their  confessional  position. 

The  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  Pittsburg  synods 
kept  their  own  home  missionary  operations  separate 
throughout  the  entire  period  of  their  connection  with  the 
General  Synod.  This  enabled  them  to  prosecute  and 
develop  the  work  without  interruption  when  the  break 
occurred.  The  home  mission  work  of  the  General  Coun- 
cil has  been  mainly  inter-synodical,  while  that  of  the 
General  Synod  is  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  general 
organization.  The  general  home  mission  work  of  the 
council  has  been  limited  to  the  planting  of  congregations 
outside  of  the   boundaries   of   its   synods,  or   where   the 


486  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxvi. 

synods  have  been  unable,  for  financial  or  other  reasons,  to 
make  the  necessary  provision. 

Before  their  separation  from  the  General  Synod,  the 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania  synods  had  been  cooperating 
in  the  support  of  an  immigrant  mission  at  Castle  Garden, 
New  York,  for  the  care  of  immigrants  from  Europe  as  they 
arrived,  and  giving  them  proper  direction  and  advice  in 
finding  homes  or  employment  in  America.  This  was 
ultimately  transferred  into  the  hands  of  the  General 
Council,  and  its  influence  greatly  increased  by  the  founding 
of  an  Emigrant  House,  of  which  Rev.  W.  Berkemeier,  to 
whose  exertions  its  erection  is  largely  due,  has  been  for  a 
score  of  years  the  superintendent.  For  some  time  the 
Missouri  Synod  cooperated  in  the  work,  but  at  last  re- 
garded a  separate  institution  necessary. 

The  foreign  missions  of  the  General  Council  have  as 
their  founder  the  founder  of  the  entire  foreign  mission 
work  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America.  We  have 
already  learned  how  Rev.  C.  F.  Heyer  had  returned  to 
America  from  India  in  1857,  thinking  that,  as  old  age 
was  rapidly  approaching,  his  days  of  efficient  service  were 
past.  We  have  learned  also  how  soon  he  found  that  it 
was  impossible  to  be  inactive.  We  have  traced  his  course 
amidst  the  severe  cold  of  Minnesota,  and  have  noted  that, 
in  a  few  years,  the  Synod  of  Minnesota  came  into  exist- 
ence as  the  result  of  his  unremitting  labors.  He  was  the 
delegate  of  that  synod  to  the  General  Synod  at  York  and 
at  Fort  Wayne.  He  represented  it  in  the  convention  at 
Reading,  Pa.,  and  again  at  Fort  Wa.yne,  where  he  became 
one  of  the  founders  of  the  General  Council.  Once  more 
he  believed  the  days  of  rest  had  come.  Retiring  from 
active  service,  he  was  spending  some  time  in  Germany, 
when  he  incidentally  learned  that  a  portion  of  the  mission- 
field  in  India  was  about  being  transferred  by  the  commit- 


HEYER   RETURNS    TO  INDIA.  487 

tee  of  the  General  Synod  to  the  Church  Missionary  Society. 
It  was  the  Rajahmundry  and  Samulcotta  territory,  which 
had  been  given  in  1850  to  the  General  Synod,  under  cer- 
tain conditions,  by  the  North  German  Missionary  Society, 
and  where  Valett,  Heise,  and  Groning  had  faithfully  labored. 
The  same  issue  was  repeated  which  faced  Rhenius  when 
his  heroic  stand  against  the  requirements  of  the  Church 
of  England  had  awakened  Heyer's  interest  before  his  first 
trip  to  India.  He  lost  no  time,  but  immediately  took 
passage  for  America.  He  reached  this  country  just  in 
time  for  the  meeting  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania, 
in  Trinity  Church,  Reading,  in  June,  1869,  where  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  veteran  missionary,  short  in  stature,  with 
white  locks  reaching  almost  to  his  shoulders,  and  with  his 
agile  movements  and  rapid  speech,  at  once  aroused  atten- 
tion and  enkindled  enthusiasm.  He  had  brought  with 
him  Mr.  H.  C.  Schmidt,  a  candidate  for  ordination  and 
the  foreign  mission-field,  ready  to  go  forth  just  as  soon  as 
the  necessary  arrangements  could  be  made.  He  urged 
that  the  ministerium  which  had  sent  him  out  to  begin 
American  Lutheran  foreign  missions  in  1842  intervene 
to  arrest  the  transfer,  and,  if  it  were  not  too  late,  again 
assume  the  responsibiHty  of  their  support  He  would 
plead  with  the  General  Synod's  board  and  with  the  Church 
Missionary  Society,  and,  although  nearly  seventy-seven 
years  old,  would  himself  go  to  India  and  reorganize  the 
work.  The  question  was  asked  how  soon  he  would  be 
prepared  to  start  on  the  journey  of  twelve  thousand  miles. 
Raising  his  vaHse  from  the  floor  by  his  side,  he  said, 
**  I  am  ready  to  go  now."  His  wish  was  accomplished. 
Everywhere  he  swept  opposition  before  him.  The  mission 
had  been  transferred  seven  months  before  he  reached  India, 
but  the  Church  Missionary  Society  could  not  deny  the 
claims  which  he   urged,  and  cheerfully   relinquished   the 


THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxvi. 

rights  they  had  acquired.  He  left  New  York  August  31, 
1869,  and  reached  Guntur  November  24th,  having  spent  a 
week  on  his  way  in  the  Pahiaud.  The  astonishment  and 
deHght  of  the  older  native  Christians  at  the  return  of  the 
pioneer  missionary  repaid  him  for  the  fatigue  and  trials  of 
the  way.  The  work  which  he  had  started  in  the  Palnaud 
had  increased  beyond  his  expectations.  '*  It  has  sometimes 
been  asserted,"  he  writes,  ''  that  the  mission  enterprise  in 
India  has  proved  a  failure,  but  this  cannot  be  said  of  the 
Palnaud.  The  number  of  baptized  is  five  hundred.  The 
work  is  spreading  from  village  to  village.  .  .  .  Bonifacius 
himself  could  not  have  been  received  more  joyfully  and 
respectfully  by  his  German  converts  than  the  native  Chris- 
tians received  their  old  missionary,  who  had  unexpectedly 
come  to  visit  them."  "We  rejoiced  together,  and  found 
abundant  cause  to  exclaim,  *  What  great  things  has  the 
Lord  done  for  us ! ' "  He  found  that  the  mission  had  received 
scarcely  any  attention  from  the  Church  Society  during  the 
seven  months  of  its  tenure,  and  that  the  prospect  of  rehef 
from  that  source  had  not  been  promising.  The  statement 
published  by  the  Bishop  of  Madras  in  October,  1869, 
concerning  the  remarkable  progress  that  had  been  made 
in  the  Tinnevelly  district  and  at  Palamcotta  fell  into  his 
hands.  He  sent  it  to  America  for  publication,  with  the 
remark  that  "  no  mention  is  made  of  Rhenius,  yet  to  this 
faithful  missionary's  labors,  in  a  great  measure,  under  God, 
the  great  results  related  in  the  address  may  be  ascribed." 
Besides  establishing  the  confidence  of  the  English  resi- 
dents of  Rajahmundry  in  the  mission,  reorganizing  the 
mission  schools  and  increasing  their  number,  directing  the 
work  of  the  native  catechists,  and  preaching,  he  began  the 
translation  of  the  Church  Book  of  the  General  Council  into 
Telugu.  In  February,  1870,  he  was  joined  by  Rev.  C.  F. 
Becker,  who  died  three  months  later;   on  August  4,  by 


SCHMIDT  AND  PAULSEN  IN  INDIA.  489 

Rev.  H.  C.  Schmidt,  who  still  labors  with  great  efficiency ; 
and  in  January,  187 1,  by  Rev.  I.  K.  Paulsen. 

Before  Dr.  Heyer  had  reached  India,  the  General 
Council  had  assumed  the  responsibility  for  the  mission, 
the  action  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  having  been 
only  a  temporary  arrangement  until  the  meeting  of  the 
council.  The  field  it  had  undertaken  to  cultivate  is  thus 
described  in  the  report  for  1871:  *' The  Telugu  country 
contains  thirteen  millions  of  inhabitants.  In  the  Godavery 
or  Rajahmundry  district,  with  six  thousand  square  miles 
and  a  million  inhabitants,  there  are  besides  ourselves  only 
two  missionaries  (Plymouth  Brethren)  at  Nursapur.  The 
nearest  mission  is  that  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society 
at  Ellore,  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  distant."  The 
entire  resources  which  the  veteran  missionary  had  found 
there  with  which  to  recommence  the  work  were  :  at  Rajah- 
mundry, a  catechist,  a  schoolmaster,  and  dilapidated  build- 
ings ;  ten  miles  distant,  in  Moramunda,  a  schoolhouse,  a 
catechist,  and  teachers  ;  in  Metta,  twelve  miles  from  Rajah- 
mundry, only  a  teacher,  with  a  few  children.  But  even  with 
this  destitution,  he  longed  for  the  transfer  to  the  General 
Council  of  the  work  in  the  Palnaud,  which  he  had  begun 
twenty  years  before,  where  the  field  was  most  promising,i 
and  where  the  General  Synod,  for  the  time,  was  unable  to 
supply  the  demand. 

When  the  presence  of  the  two  young  missionaries, 
Schmidt  and  Paulsen,  in  their  posts,  early  in  187 1,  reHeved 
him  of  his  responsibility,  he  returned  to  America,  having 
accomplished  the  task  for  which  he  had  been  commis- 
sioned, and  having  infused  throughout  the  whole  Lutheran 

1  "  If  every  missionary  in  India  were  privileged  to  baptize  in  like  propor- 
tions, it  would  not  require  many  years  until  all  India  would  be  Christianized. 
But  who  is  to  attend  to  the  poor  people  in  the  Palnaud?  " — Dr.  Heyer  to 
committee,  December  31,  1870. 


490  THE  LUTHERANS.  [CHAr.  xxvi. 

Church  In  America  a  new  Interest  In  the  work  In  India.  In 
1872  he  became  resident  chaplain  of  the  Theological  Semi- 
nary in  Philadelphia,  and  was  actively  engaged,  almost  to 
his  death,  in  manifold  ministerial  labors.  He  died  In  the 
seminary,  November  14,  1873,  aged  eighty  years  and  nine 
months.  During  the  last  year  of  his  life  he  began,  in  a 
clear  and  firm  hand,  to  write  the  history  of  the  seminary, 
to  whose  Interests  he  was  devoted.  The  biography  of  this 
remarkable  man  remains  to  be  written.  During  his  min- 
isterial career  the  number  of  Lutheran  ministers  In  this 
country  grew  from  one  hundred  and  twenty  to  over 
twenty-two  hundred.  The  Influence  of  his  presence  in  the 
seminary  was  felt  in  the  foreign  missionaries  who,  within  a 
few  years,  entered  the  field  from  among  its  students  (Carl- 
son, Artman,  Dietrich),  and  In  the  Father  Heyer  Mission- 
ary Society,  which  still  maintains  its  existence. 

New  educational  institutions  were  founded  and  the  pro- 
visions of  others  liberally  enlarged  during  this  era.  We 
have  noticed  the  establishment  of  Muhlenberg  College, 
AUentown.  A  sister  college,  not  a  rival,  came  Into  exist- 
ence in  1870  upon  the  territory  of  the  Pittsburg  Synod. 
A  Louis  Thiel,  a  humble  and  devout  layman  of  Allegheny, 
purchased  a  building  at  Phillipsburg,  Beaver  County,  Pa., 
the  former  home  of  a  schism  from  the  Economites  under 
Count  de  Leon,  and  established  there,  In  1866,  under  the 
advice  and  superintendency  of  Rev.  Dr.  Passavant,  an  acad- 
emy known  as  Thiel  Hall.  Its  first  principal  was  Rev.  E.  F. 
Giese,  who  was  succeeded  in  1868  by  the  author  of  this 
book.  On  his  resignation,  to  accept  a  professorship  in 
Pennsylvania  College,  in  1870,  Rev.  H.  W.  Roth  succeeded 
him,  and  the  institution  became  a  college.  On  the  death 
of  Mr.  Thiel  a  handsome  bequest  was  left,  enabling  the 
college  to  increase  its  facilities,  on  its  removal  to  Green- 


THE   CONSERVATIVE   REEORMATION.  491 

vllle,  Mercer  County,  and  to  become  an  important  feeder 
for  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Philadelphia. 

Augustana  College  and  Theological  Seminary  were  re- 
moved from  Paxton,  III,  to  Rock  Island,  III,  in  1876,  and 
the  seminary  of  the  Iowa  Synod  with  its  college  to  Men- 
dota.  111.,  in  1874.  These  movements  indicated  that  the 
plan,  approved  by  the  General  Council  in  1869,  of  a  gen- 
eral theological  seminary  in  Chicago,  in  which  should  be 
concentrated  the  theological  faculties  of  the  synods  within 
or  affiHated  with  the  General  Council  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley — German,  Swedish,  Norwegian,  and  English — could 
not,  for  the  present,  be  carried  out.  In  1872  the  General 
Council  had  elected  a  professor,  and  authorized  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  seminary  before  the  next  convention. 

A  great  advance  in  literary  development  accompanied 
the  events  connected  with  the  organization  of  the  council. 
The  greatest  work  produced  was  "  The  Conservative  Ref- 
ormation and  its  Theology,"  by  Charles  Porterfield  Krauth, 
published  in  1871,  distinguished  for  its  exhaustive  research, 
profound  learning,  and  entertaining  and  brilliant  style.  It 
consisted  of  the  choicest  products  of  Dr.  Krauth's  pen  for 
over  twenty  years,  concerning  the  doctrines  and  history  of 
the  Lutheran  Church,  much  of  it  having  previously  ap- 
peared in  *'  The  Evangelical  Review  "  and  ''  The  Lutheran 
and  Missionary."  The  Lutheran  Church  at  last  had  in  the 
English  language  an  adequate  and  triumphant  defense, 
not  only  to  answer  the  doubts  of  her  own  people,  but  to 
silence  the  attacks  of  adversaries.  It  labored  under  the 
disadvantage  of  being  a  series  of  isolated  essays,  rather 
than  a  complete  and  connected  treatment  of  its  theme ; 
but  even  as  such,  it  remains  one  of  the  few  orimnal  theo- 
logical  treatises  of  the  first  rank  that  our  country  has  pro- 
duced.    The  criticism  of  the  late  Dr.  J.  W.  Nevin,  of  the 


49^  THE  LUTHERANS.  [CiiAr.  xxvl. 

Reformed  Church,  is  probably  of  more  value  than  that. of 
one  whose  relations  to  Dr.  Krauth  were  such  as  to  justly 
suggest  a  bias  disqualifying  from  impartial  judgment.  He 
said : 

Dr.  Krauth  is  known  as  one  of  the  first  writers  of  our  country.  The 
gentleman,  the  Christian,  and  the  scholar  are  happily  blended  in  his  person. 
He  is  one  of  the  pillars  of  his  own  church  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and 
one  of  the  ornaments  of  our  American  Christianity  in  general. 

Speaking  of  ''  the  mighty  challenge  it  presents  to  our 
whole  American  Christianity,  outside  of  the  Lutheran 
Church,"  he  continued: 

It  is  not  the  cry  of  blustering  ignorance  nor  of  fanatical  rant.  The  book 
is  of  the  heavy  artillery  order,  large  in  size  (840  pp.,  8vo.),  ponderous  in 
bearing,  vigorous  in  style,  and  energetic  in  thought.  No  one  who  has  seen 
Dr.  Krauth  in  his  own  magnificent  library  (one  of  the  finest  in  the  whole 
country),  or  who  has  known  anything  of  his  laborious  studies  in  past  years, 
can  undervalue  or  doubt  his  qualification  for  the  task  he  has  here  undertaken. 
It  may  be  doubted  if  any  other  man  in  our  country  could  have  handled  this 
particular  subject  with  the  same  ability  or  the  same  amount  of  historical 
learning.  .  .  .  The  work  marks  the  advance  of  a  highly  interesting  and 
significant  restorational  movement  in  the  historical  life  of  the  American 
Lutheran  Church  itself.  We  all  know  that  half  a  century  ago  Lutheranism 
in  this  country  had  fallen  almost  entirely  from  the  distinctive  peculiarities  of 
what  Lutheranism  was  confessionally  in  the  sixteenth  century.  In  becoming 
English  especially,  it  was  supposed  to  have  gone  through  a  sort  of  evangeli- 
cal regeneration,  which  consisted  largely  in  forgetting  its  own  shibboleths 
altogether,  and  taking  up  those  of  Puritanism  and  Methodism.  It  affected 
to  be  in  this  way  ^'American  Lutheranism,"  something  quite  ahead  of  all 
medieval  fooleries,  and  fit  to  figure  in  the  nineteenth  century.  ...  In  these 
circumstances,  it  is  a  matter  for  real  congratulation  that  the  Lutheran  Church 
is  in  a  fair  way  to  become  far  more  of  a  power  in  our  country  than  it  has 
heretofore  been ;  and  there  is  room  to  look  also  for  the  resurrection  of  a  live 
Lutheran  theology  among  us  in  the  spirit  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  which 
may  yet  force  its  claims  on  the  attention  of  our  one-sided  (and,  therefore, 
more  or  less  lopsided)  reformed  Protestantism,  so  as  to  exert  upon  it  in  the 
end  a  sanitary  modification  in  which  both  confessions  may  have  reason  to  re- 
joice. 

In  1872  the  brochure  of  Dr.  Krauth  on  ''  Infant  Salva- 
tion in  the  Calvinistic  System  "  was  called  forth  by  a  chal- 
lenge of  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  in  his  *'  Systematic  Theology," 


JOSEPH  A  UGUSTUS  SEISS.  493 

vol.  ill.,  p.  605.  The  acknowledgment  of  Dr.  Hodge  that 
he  was  in  the  wrong  was  as  prompt  and  generous  as  the 
argument  of  Dr.  Krauth  was  overwhelming  and  exhaust- 
ive in  its  citation  of  authorities.  Dr.  Hodge's  graceful 
tribute  to  Dr.  Krauth's  attainments  in  Calvinistic  theology 
was  only  approached  by  the  glowing  commendation  of  Dr. 
Hodge,  as  a  man  and  theologian,  by  his  reviewer.  When 
Dr.  Charles  Hodge  celebrated  the  jubilee  of  his  professor- 
ship at  Princeton,  Dr.  Krauth  was  present  as  the  represent- 
ative of  the  Philadelphia  faculty.  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge,  in 
his  biography  of  his  father,  states  that  of  all  the  remarks 
of  congratulation,  none  were  more  grateful  than  those  of 
Dr.  Krauth,  a  summary  of  which  is  there  given.  If  con- 
troversies could  only  be  always  conducted  in  such  spirit, 
the  more  we  would  have  of  them  the  better  would  it  be. 

A  noteworthy  publication,  somewhat  earlier  than  ''  The 
Conservative  Reformation,"  was  the  ''  Ecclesia  Lutherana  " 
of  Dr.  J.  A.  Seiss,  full  of  condensed  information  concern- 
ing its  subject,  written  in  the  vigorous  style  of  which  the 
author  is  a  master,  and  well  adapted  for  general  circulation. 
A  beginning  was  also  made  of  a  complete  set  of  sermons 
upon  the  gospels  and  epistles  for  the  church  year,  the 
completion  of  which  in  the  fifth  volume  for  the  minor 
festivals,  in  1893,  was  the  crowning  work  of  the  literary 
activity  of  the  most  industrious  author  whom  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  America  has  produced.  Next  to  Dr.  Schaff,  he 
probably  ranks  as  the  most  voluminous  theological  writer 
of  the  country.  His  lectures  on  the  Apocalypse,  **  Voices 
from  Babylon,"  *'  Miracle  in  Stone,"  etc.,  appeared  during 
the  years  whose  history  we  have  been  narrating.  The 
*' Theologische  Monatshefte  "  of  Rev.  S.  K.  Brobst  was 
a  scientific  theological  journal  within  the  council,  which 
numbered  among  its  contributors  Drs.  Mann,  Spaeth,  S. 
Fritschel,  G.  Fritschel,  etc. 


494  ^^^^^  LUTIIEA'ANS.  [Chap.  xxvi. 

The  General  Synod  also  advanced  to  a  more  thorough 
organization  by  the  struggles  which  had  occasioned  its  dis- 
ruptions. The  centralizing  process  to  which  we  have  re- 
ferred advanced  with  great  rapidity.  The  former  societies 
of  home  missions,  foreign  missions,  church  extension,  and 
publication  became  boards  of  the  General  Synod.  The 
controversy  with  the  General  Council,  vigorously  conducted 
through  the  church  papers  and  '*  Quarterly  Review," 
which  in  1872  succeeded  the  '' Evangehcal  Review"  at 
Gettysburg,  constantly  made  the  assertion  of  conservative 
principles  stronger.  Down  to  the  very  year  of  his  death, 
in  1873,  Dr.  S.  S.  Schmucker  exerted  all  his  power  to 
check  the  movement.  The  amendment  to  the  constitu- 
tion proposed  at  York,  and  finally  adopted  at  Harrisburg, 
while  variously  interpreted  by  those  who  subscribed  it, 
proved  to  be  a  powerful  educational  leaven.  From  the 
institutions  of  the  General  Synod  at  Gettysburg  there  was 
issued,  in  1875,  a  translation  of  Schmid's  **  Dogmatik," 
with  the  approval  and  commendation  of  the  most  repre- 
sentative Lutheran  theologians  of  this  country,  including 
Walther,  Loy,  and  S.  Fritschel.  A  trustworthy  handbook 
was  thus  furnished  pastors  and  students  in  the  English 
language,  enabling  them  to  determine  for  themselves. what 
are  the  doctrines  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  and  what  the 
arguments  by  which  they  are  defended. 

The  foundation,  by  Rev.  S.  A.  Holman,  D.D.,  of  a 
course  of  annual  lectures  on  the  Augsburg  Confession,  at 
the  Theological  Seminary  at  Gettysburg,  led  to  the  more 
thorough  study,  explanation,  and  defense  of  the  confes- 
sion by  the  prominent  professors  and  pastors  who  were 
appointed  lecturers.  The  first  series,  upon  the  twenty- 
one  doctrinal  articles,  was  begun  in  1866  and  published 
in  1888. 

Various  efforts  were  made  to  enter  into  some  form  of 


rilE  DIETS   OF  1S77   AND   ISIS.  495 

friendly  relation  with  the  General  Council  and  other  Lu- 
theran bodies  of  a  stricter  confessional  position,  which, 
however,  were  firmly  and  even  bitterly  resisted,  and 
generally  with  success,  by  the  advocates  of  the  so-called 
'*  American  Lutheranism."  The  latter  insisted  on  the  ex- 
change of  delegates,  as  with  other  denominations,  as  the  sole 
form  of  communication.  This  could  not  be  entertained  by 
the  other  bodies  without  some  more  definite  understand- 
ing of  the  sense  in  which  the  General  Synod  was  ready  to 
pledge  itself  to  the  confessions.  The  official  declaration 
proposed  at  York  was  not  unsatisfactory,  but  the  prevalent 
interpretation  of  the  declaration,  as  allowing  those  who 
openly  attacked  the  distinctive  doctrines  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  equal  rights  with  ''  the  strictest  symbolist,"  ren- 
dered the  formal  acceptance  of  the  pledge  at  Harrisburg  un- 
satisfactory to  the  other  bodies  as  a  confessional  test.  At  the 
same  time  they  gratefully  recognized  the  growth  of  a  Lu- 
theran consciousness  within  the  General  Synod,  and  would 
have  been  glad  of  the  opportunity  of  participating  in  a  col- 
loquium, in  which  there  could  be  a  free  discussion  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Augsburg  Confession.  The  bringing  to- 
gether of  representative  men  of  all  the  different  bodies  in 
such  informal  way,  it  was  felt,  would  do  much  toward  an 
ultimate  universal  determination  and  conviction  as  to  what 
is  the  Lutheran  faith,  and  how  those  united  in  it  could 
cooperate.  When,  therefore,  in  1873,  the  General  Synod, 
on  motion  of  Rev.  Dr.  Morris,  proposed  an  interchange  of 
delegates,  the  General  Council  proposed  instead  a  collo- 
quium. The  proposition  of  the  General  Council  was  ac- 
cepted by  the  General  Synod,  South,  and  the  Synodical 
Conference ;  but  being  declined  by  the  General  Synod  in 
1875,  nothing  further  was  done. 

Meanwhile  the  thought  of  the  colloquium  was  carried 
out  in  the  two  "  Lutheran  Diets,"  which  were  originated 


496  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxvi. 

and  organized  by  the  private  efforts  of  Dr.  Morris,  of  the 
General  Synod,  and  Dr.  Seiss,  of  the  General  Council. 
They  were  both  held  in  Philadelphia,  the  first  in  December, 
1877,  and  the  second  in  November,  1878.  Thoroughly 
prepared  papers  were  read  and  discussed,  and  the  pro- 
ceedings of  each  diet  were  afterward  published  in  a  volume 
containing  much  information  concerning  living  questions 
in  the  Lutheran  Church.  Important  results,  affecting  the 
future  development,  can  be  traced  to  these  conventions. 
They  ceased  to  be  held,  probably  from  the  disappoint- 
ment that  was  felt  that  an  immediate  solution  of  the  ec- 
clesiastical problem  was  not  reached,  which,  under  the 
circumstances,  was  a  manifest  impossibility. 

The  foreign  mission  work  of  the  General  Synod  was 
in  a  languishing  condition  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War. 
The  loss  of  one  half  of  its  communicant  membership  by 
the  disruption  most  seriously  crippled  it.  The  cessation  of 
the  cooperation  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  was  a 
heavy  blow.  When,  therefore,  the  missionaries  Groening 
and  Heise  retired  from  the  Rajahmundry  district,  the 
committee  sought  relief  by  the  proposed  transfer  to  the 
Church  Missionary  Society,  which  was  interrupted  by  the 
return  of  Dr.  Heyer.  In  1871  the  visit  of  Dr.  Unangst, 
of  Guntur,  to  the  United  States,  and  the  return  with  him 
of  Rev.  J.  H.  Harpster,  increased  the  interest.  The  latter 
labored  with  much  success  in  the  Palnaud,  where  Heyer 
had  been  the  pioneer,  and  in  which  the  heart  of  the  vet- 
eran seemed  to  linger  until  the  very  last.  Rev.  L.  L.  Uhl 
followed  shortly  afterward,  being  placed  in  charge  of 
the  high-school  at  Guntur,  which  has  since  grown  into  a 
flourishing  college.  In  1874  Rev.  A.  D.  Rowe  reached 
Guntur,  as  **  the  children's  missionary,"  having  been  sent 
thither  by  the  Sunday-schools  of  the  General  Synod,  in 
the  visitation  of  which  he  had  spent  much  time  before  his 


DAY'S  IVORK  IN  AFRICA.  497 

departure.  His  eminent  ability,  supplemented  by  his 
experience  as  a  youthful  superintendent  of  schools  of  Clin- 
ton County,  Pa.,  his  cultivated  manners,  and  thorough  con- 
secration to  his  work,  gave  the  greatest  promise  of  useful- 
ness. His  books,  ''Every-day  Life  in  India,"  ''Missionary 
Life  in  India,"  show  decided  Hterary  ability.  The  tidings 
of  his  death,  September  16,  1882,  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
three,  came  with  crushing  weight  upon  all  interested  in 
missionary  work  who  had  learned  to  know  him. 

The  Muhlenberg  Mission  in  Africa,  founded  by  Rev. 
M.  Officer  in  i860,  has  proved  destructive  either  to  the 
health  or  lives  of  nearly  all  who  have  entered  its  service. 
There  is  no  escape  from  the  dreaded  African  fever.  The 
missionary  who  returns  to  America  for  rest  must  pass 
through  the  process  of  accliniatization  once  more,  as  he 
approaches  or  reaches  the  coast,  where  the  almost  vertical 
rays  of  the  sun  deluge  him  with  a  heat  charged  with 
moisture  from  the  earth,  and  with  germs  of  fever  from  the 
rank  and  decaying  vegetation  of  the  dense  jungle.  The 
ordinary  relief  at  night  from  the  oppressive  heat  rarely 
comes  in  that  climate.  Through  this  crisis  the  wives  of 
the  missionaries  are  far  less  Hable  to  pass  with  safety  than 
their  husbands.  The  record  is  a  most  discouraging  and 
distressing  one.  Within  a  period  of  twenty-three  years 
(1860-83)  sixteen  missionaries  entered  the  field,  of  whom 
four  died  (Rev.  S.  P.  Carnell,  Mrs.  Kistler,  Breuninger,  and 
Collins),  and  ten  returned  with  impaired  health.  The 
field  might  have  been  abandoned,  but  for  the  Rev.  D.  A. 
Day  and  wife,  who  reached  the  mission  in  June,  1^74,  and 
have  been  able,  with  much  efficiency,  to  endure  the  cli- 
mate and  extend  the  work  and  influence  of  the  mission,  up 
to  the  present  time.  Dr.  Day  has  the  reputation  of  being 
the  most  successful  missionary  on  the  western  coast  of 
Africa.     The  educational  work  is  depended  upon  as  the 


498  THE  LUTHERANS,  [Chap.  xxvi. 

chief  means  of  bringing  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel  to 
the  degraded  natives.  The  Christian  schools  established 
under  his  superintendence  have  educated  hundreds  of 
African  children.  From  the  coast  the  influence  extends 
for  hundreds  of  miles  into  the  interior,  where  the  native 
tribes  of  different  languages  have  learned  to  communicate 
with  one  another  by  means  of  the  so-called  "  pigeon  Eng- 
lish." The  greatest  obstacle  to  missionary  success  has 
been  the  horrible  rum  traffic,  whereby  from  Christian 
nations  the  heathen  derive  the  means  for  their  still  deeper 
degradation. 

The  largest  of  all  the  general  bodies  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  America  was  formed  in  1872,  with  the  power- 
ful Synod  of  Missouri  as  its  center  and  head.  Its  forma-* 
tion  was  a  direct  result  of  the  centralizing  process  started 
by  the  movements  leading  to  the  formation  of  the  General 
Council.  The  desire  for  synodical  union  was  universally 
felt.  A  large,  homogeneous  body  has  a  wonderful  power 
in  attracting  to  itself  feebler  organizations.  Missouri  was 
constantly  growing  by  adding  to  itself  new  congregations, 
many  of  which  were  not  recent  in  origin,  but  had  been 
either  independent  or  had  belonged  to  other  synods.  Its 
ministerial  ranks  grew,  not  simply  from  the  graduates  of 
its  seminaries,  but  the  synod  became  a  rallying-point  for 
German-speaking  pastors  from  all  quarters,  receiving  its 
contributions  even  from  the  General  Synod,  but  still  more 
from  the  General  Council. 

The  hidden  force  which  drew  some  of  the  German 
synods  from  the  General  Council  was  the  loadstone  at  St. 
Louis.  Missouri  was  thought  to  be  a  stronger  power  than 
the  council,  and  as  union  with  the  council  and  with  Mis- 
souri, or  union  with  Missouri  in  the  council,  was  impossi- 
ble, they  were  driven  to  the  alternative  of  union  with  Mis- 
souri outside  of  the  council.     The  Synodical  Conference 


THE   SYNODIC  A  L    CONFERENCE.  499 

is  without  many  features  of  what  is  generally  regarded 
almost  essential  to  a  general  body.  The  synods  included 
in  it  are  so  completely  isolated  in  carrying  on  their  various 
forms  of  church  work,  that  the  conference  is  more  a  bond 
of  mutual  recognition  than  anything  else.  There  are  no 
territorial  bounds  between  the  synods  included  within  it, 
there  being  not  a  few  places  where  there  are  congregations 
of  two  of  the  synods,  and  sometimes  even  three  of  the 
synods  being  represented.  There  has  been  no  common 
church  work  for  their  united  efforts,  unless  it  be  that  of 
a  not  very  extensive  mission  among  the  negroes.  The 
sessions  have  been  occupied  chiefly  with  the  discussion  of 
doctrinal  questions.  The  admission  of  a  synod  into  the 
conference  requires  the  assent  of  all  the  synods  already 
represented.  It  can  decide  nothing  except  by  reference 
to  the  constituent  synods  and  their  final  vote. 

The  synods  uniting  to  form  the  Synodical  Conference 
were  the  Missouri,  Ohio,  Wisconsin,  Norwegian,  Minne- 
sota, and  Illinois.  The  last  two  had  been  in  ,  the  General 
Synod,  and  then  in  the  General  Council,  Illinois  was  soon 
absorbed  by  Missouri,  and  ceased  to  exist  as  a  separate 
synod.  The  small  Concordia  Synod  of  Virginia  and  Eng- 
lish Conference  of  Missouri  afterward  united  with  the 
Synodical  Conference. 

Within  the  synods  of  the  Synodical  Conference  the 
greatest  activity  continued.  The  Missouri  Synod  enlarged 
the  number  of  its  district  synods,  covering  the  whole 
country,  from  Canada  to  Texas  and  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific,  with  a  most  compact  and  thorough  organiza- 
tion, leaving  all  things  to  the  free  determinations  of  con- 
gregations, and  yet  in  such  a  way  that  they  always  seemed 
to  outsiders  to  act  and  speak  as  one  man.  The  parochial 
school  system,  with  the  Teachers'  Seminary  at  Addison, 
III,  was  a  most  prominent  feature  of  its  work.     The  theo- 


500  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap.  xxvi. 

retical  and  practical  courses  of  the  theological  seminary 
were  divided,  the  former  remaining  at  St.  Louis,  while  the 
latter  was  removed  to  Springfield,  111.  The  Norwegian 
and  Wisconsin  synods,  for  a  time,  had  representatives  in 
the  faculty  at  St.  Louis,  it  having  been  a  favorite  plan  in 
the  Synodical  Conference  to  transfer  thither  all  their  theo- 
logical instruction  of  the  higher  grade.  The  Publication 
House  at  St.  Louis  grew  to  large  proportions,  and  brought 
in  a  large  revenue  for  synodical  operations.  The  minutes 
of  the  various  districts  were  theological  treatises,  contain- 
ing as  they  did  the  theses  discussed  at  every  meeting,  with 
an  exhaustive  report  of  the  discussion,  which,  of  course, 
was  not  extemporaneous,  but  consisted  of  ponderous  theo- 
logical lectures.  With  untiring  zeal  the  "  Lehre  unci  Wehre  " 
continued  the  polemic  against  the  Iowa  Synod  and  General 
Council.  Everything  is  still  controlled  by  the  magnetic 
personality  of  Dr.  Walther,  unwavering  in  his  denial  of  the 
existence  of  any  open  questions  in  theology. 

The  development  in  Ohio  proceeded  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Professors  Lehman  and  Loy,  the  two  chief  profess- 
ors at  Columbus.  There  were  occasional  conflicts  between 
this  synod  and  its  former  district,  which  had  entered  the 
General  Council,  in  which  the  council  itself  became  inci- 
dentally involved,  mainly  on  the  subject  of  secret  societies. 
Ohio's  growth,  however,  had  proceeded  so  long  upon  the 
historical  lines  derived  from  her  connection  with  the  church 
in  the  East,  that  she  was  soon  restive  under  the  aggressive 
methods  of  Missouri  in  the  Synodical  Conference. 

The  institutions  of  the  Wisconsin  Synod  at  Watertown 
flourished  under  the  presidency  of  Professor  Ernst,  Rev. 
A.  Hoenecke  being  the  professor  of  theology,  and  the 
**  Gemeindeblatt  "  the  synodical  organ. 

Luther  College  of  the  Norwegian  Synod  at  Decorah,  la., 
acquired  a  large  building,  and  was  manned  by  an  able  fac- 


THE  INDEPENDENT  SYNODS.  50 1 

ulty.  A  revision  of  an  English  translation  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  made  by  Professor  J.  C.  Jacobsen,  of  this  col- 
lege, was  the  best  translation  in  the  language,  until  the 
recent  one  made  in  1891  by  representatives  of  all  Lutheran 
bodies  in  America  using  regularly  the  English.  This  synod, 
besides  its  Western  work,  has  been  active  in  the  establish- 
ment of  seamen's  missions  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  so 
many  Norwegians  being  sailors,  and  while  in  port  needing 
especial  care. 

Passing  to  the  independent  synods,  an  important  one 
among  them  was  the  ''  Conference  "  of  the  Norwegians  and 
Danes,  an  offshoot  of  the  Augustana  Synod,  which  sepa- 
rated according  to  nationality  in  1870,  after  which  the  Nor- 
wegians again  divided  into  two  bodies.  The  Conference, 
first  under  Professor  Weenass  and  afterward  under  Pro- 
fessor Sverdrup,  established  its  headquarters  in  Minneap- 
olis, where  it  built  its  theological  seminary.  The  Norwe- 
gian Augustana  Synod  was  a  much  smaller  body,  which 
held  the  same  relation  as  the  Iowa  Synod  to  the  General 
Council.  Among  its  pastors  the  best  known  were  Paul 
Andersen  and  O.  J.  Hattelstadt.  Their  seminary  was  ulti- 
mately fixed  at  Beloit,  la. 

A  Danish  Synod  (Danish  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church 
in  America)  was  founded  in  1872,  as  the  result  of  a  mis- 
sionary movement  in  Denmark.  It  has  congregations  both 
East  and  West,  and  a  theological  seminary  in  West  Den- 
mark, Wis.  Its  relations  with  the  General  Council  are 
very  intimate,  as  it  aids  in  the  support  of  the  Rajahmundry 
mission,  sends  students  to  the  Philadelphia  Seminary,  and 
its  Philadelphia  mission  is  supported  by  the  Ministerium 
of  Pennsylvania. 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

THE    ERA    OF    REAPPROACH    AND    EFFORTS    FOR    UNION 
AMONG   THE    SEPARATED    BODIES    (l  877-93). 

The  era  from  1877  to  the  present  is  marked  by  a 
number  of  violent  controversies  within  the  larger  general 
bodies,  felt  throughout  the  entire  church,  beneath  which, 
however,  there  has  been  a  steady  progress  in  drawing 
together  around  a  common  center.  The  controversies  only 
indicate  that  as  every  affirmative  implies  a  negative,  so 
every  union  implies  disunion.  There  must  be  controversy, 
and  often  a  rupture,  before  a  readjustment  of  former  rela- 
tions is  possible. 

Three  controversies  are  of  especial  importance : 

I.  TJie  Predestination  Controversy  within  the  Synodical 
Conference.  This  was  the  direct  result  of  Missouri's  de- 
nial of  the  existence  of  ''  open  questions  "  within  the  Lu- 
theran Church,  and  its  attempt  to  enforce  as  confessional 
the  position  which  Luther  originally  held,  but  which  in  the 
latter  part  of  his  life,  without  renouncing,  he  preferred  not 
to  press.  The  Formula  of  Concord  itself,  in  adopting  a 
compromise  on  the  subject  between  the  positions  advanced 
by  the  North  Germans  under  Chemnitz  and  the  Suabians 
under  Andreae,  guaranteed  a  certain  amount  of  liberty  in 
regard  to  what  might  be  held  as  opinions,  but  not  advanced 
as  doctrines  of  the  Lutheran  Church. 

The  issue  could  be  foreseen  long  before  the  controversy 
began.  In  1880  Dr.  F.  A.  Schmidt,  of  the  Norwegian 
Synod,  a  coUeagwe  of  Dr.  Walther  in  the  seminary  at  St. 

502 


THE  PREDESTINATION  CONTROVERSY.  503 

Louis,  criticised  the  statement  presented  in  various  theses 
to  the  district  synods  for  discussion  and  printed  in  their 
minutes,  that  God's  election  is  the  cause  of  man's  salvation, 
and  that  even  man's  faith  is  the  result  of  election.  A 
theological  journal,  *'  Altes  und  Neues,"  was  started  by 
Dr.  Schmidt  for  the  sole  purpose  of  antagonizing  the  Mis- 
souri doctrine.  With  Dr.  Schmidt  sided  the  professors  of 
the  Ohio  Synod,  and  their  publications  gave  their  testimony 
against  Dr.  Walther.  From  outside  the  Synodical  Con- 
ference, the  theologians  of  the  Iowa  Synod  also  came  to 
the  support  of  Dr.  Schmidt.  An  attempt  was  made  to 
reach  an  understanding  by  a  colloquium  at  Milwaukee,  in 
January,  1881,  where,  after  five  days'  discussion,  the  pro- 
fessors of  the  Ohio  Synod  withdrew.  At  the  next  meet- 
ing of  the  Ohio  Synod  it  dissolved  its  connection  with  the 
Synodical  Conference.  The  Norwegian  Synod  followed, 
hoping  to  preserve  its  unity  by  getting  beyond  the  range 
of  the  controversy  in  the  Synodical  Conference  in  respect 
to  which  its  pastors  were  divided.  The  effort  was  useless, 
for  the  Norwegian  Synod  was  itself  separated  by  the 
conflict,  the  ''  anti-Missourians "  founding  a  seminary  at 
Northfield,  Minn.,  with  Dr.  Schmidt  as  the  chief  professor. 
There  was  an  interchange  of  ministers,  as  they  passed, 
according  to  their  convictions,  from  one  camp  to  the  other, 
the  most  significant  having  been  the  gain  which  Ohio 
made  by  the  accession  of  Professor  F.  W.  Stellhorn,  of  the 
Missouri  College  at  Fort  Wayne,  to  the  theological  faculty 
of  the  Ohio  Synod  at  Columbus. 

The  literature  produced  during  the  years  in  which  the 
controversy  raged  was  of  such  extent  that  it  would  have 
occupied  a  very  large  portion  of  a  student's  time  to  have 
kept  pace  with  the  disputants.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that 
it  led  to  no  thorough  treatise  of  permanent  value,  and  was 
confined  only  to  the  papers,  the  theological  journals,  and 


504  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxvii. 

separate  pamphlets.  A  great  amount  of  learning  was  dis- 
played, on  both  sides,  in  the  frequent  long  attacks  and 
counter-attacks,  which  were  published.  If  the  disputants 
could  have  condensed  and  concentrated  their  arguments 
into  two  solid  and  exhaustive  treatises,  and  have  rested 
their  cause  upon  these  presentations,  far  more  would  have 
been  gained. 

The  charge,  on  the  one  side,  was  that  the  Missourians 
were  Calvinists ;  and,  on  the  other,  that  their  opponents 
were  synergists.  But  Missouri  differed  from  Calvinists  in 
teaching  the  universality  of  the  atonement,  the  universality 
and  seriousness  of  the  call,  and  the  constant  presence  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  with  the  Word.  Missouri  always  protested 
that  it  never  taught  that  any  one  is  lost  because  God  willed 
that  he  be  not  saved.  The  distinction  between  the  three 
doctrines  may  be  thus  illustrated : 

Ohio  and  Iowa :  In  view  of  faith  in  the  merits  of  Christ, 
men  are  elected  unto  salvation. 

Missouri :  In  view  of  the  merits  of  Christ,  men  are  elected 
to  faith  for  salvation. 

Calvinists :  Men  are  elected  to  the  merits  of  Christ  and 
to  faith  for  salvation. 

The  expression  'Hntiiitit  fidei''  thus  became  the  main 
point  of  dispute.  The  opponents  of  Missouri  triumphantly 
cited  the  numerous  defenses  of  this  expression  from  the 
old  Lutheran  theologians  of  the  seventeenth  century ;  and 
in  reply  were  compHmented  for  their  acquaintance  with 
the  defects  of  these  masters. 

The  last  literary  effort  of  Dr.  Krauth's  life  was  to  begin 
an  article  reviewing  the  controversy,  which  was  found 
among  his  papers  after  his  death. 

If  the  disputants  in  the  Synodical  Conference  agree  upon  a  statement,  made 
in  simple  good  faith,  as  to  what  are  the  points  on  which  they  are  one,  and 
what  are  the  points  on  which  they  differ,  we  may  hope  for  final  peace.     Till 


DOES  FAITH  CAUSE  ELECTION?  505 

they  do  this,  the  more  they  discuss  the  doctrine  of  election  the  more  they 
will  muHdle  the  mind  of  the  church,  and  the  further  they  will  be  from  a  de- 
cision. The  question,  Is  our  faith  a  cause  of  God's  election,  or  an  effect  of 
it?  must  be  carefully  defined  before  men  can  take  sides  upon  it.  Considered 
as  a  relation  between  man  and  God,  the  answer  would  be  made  in  one  way. 
Considered  as  a  question  covering  the  case  between  one  man  and  another, 
the  answer  would  Idc  reversed.  What  is  the  cause  of  my  faith?  The  generic 
action  of  God's  election  or  choice.  He  chose  to  provide  redemption  for  lost 
man ;  he  chose  that  a  divine-human  Saviour  should  consummate  it ;  he 
chose  that  the  Spirit  should  apply  it;  he  chose  the  Word  and  sacraments 
as  organic  instruments  of  it :  and  these  links  of  choices  form  the  generic 
chain  of  election.     This  election  is  the  cause  of  faith. 

Now  comes  the  other  question,  no  longer  as  between  man  and  God,  but 
between  man  and  man.  Election  as  generic  contemplates  all  men  alike — its 
redemption  is  universal,  its  Saviour  the  Saviour  of  all,  its  Spirit  the  gift  pur- 
chased for  all,  its  means  are  objective  forces,  which  put  all  men  to  whom  they 
come  on  a  common  plane  of  responsibility  and  above  the  simple  condition 
of  natural  helplessness.  Why  do  men  in  completely  parallel  relations  to  this 
election  move  in  opposite  directions?  The  one  believes,  the  other  disbelieves. 
Is  the  election  of  God,  in  any  sense,  the  cause  of  the  difference?  The  answer 
of  the  Calvinist  is,  Yes.  The  answer  of  the  Lutheran  is,  No.  The  election 
of  God  is  indeed  the  cause  of  the  faith  of  the  one,  but  it  is  neither  positively 
nor  negatively,  neither  by  act  nor  by  failure  to  act,  the  cause  of  the  unbelief 
of  the  other.  1 

Such  was  the  decision  upon  the  merits  of  the  controversy 
by  one  best  qualified  to  be  an  impartial  judge. 

2.  TJic  Liturgical  and  Confessional  Controversy  within 
the  General  Synod.  The  desire  expressed  by  Muhlenberg 
near  the  close  of  his  life  that  **  all  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
congregations  in  the  North  American  States  "  should  be 
**  united  with  one  another,"  especially  in  the  use  of  **  the 
same  order  of  service,"^  has  advanced  rapidly  toward  its 
fulfillment.  To  the  churches  in  the  South  belongs  the 
credit  for  the  initiation  of  the  movement  which  has  in- 
cluded virtually  all  English-speaking  and  a  very  large 
portion  of  the  German-speaking  Lutherans.  Of  Dr.  Bach- 
man,  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  it  is  said:  ''  In  his  old  age,  per- 

1  "  Lutheran  Church  Review,"  vol.  iii.,  pp.  68  sqq. 

2  Mann's  "  Life  of  Muhlenberg,"  p.  501. 


5o6  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxvii. 

haps  the  strongest  desire  of  his  heart  was  that  all  English- 
speaking  Lutherans  should  have  a  common  service.  We 
find  him  suggesting  and  urging  the  same,  and  when  pre- 
vented by  age  and  feebleness  from  attending  the  General 
Synod  that  met  at  Winchester,  Va.,  in  1870,  expressing  to 
his  brethren  by  letter  the  burden  of  his  heart's  desire."  ^ 

The  resolution  of  the  General  Synod,  South,  at  Staunton, 
Va.,^  in  1876,  proposing  negotiations  with  the  General 
Synod  and  General  Council  for  the  preparation  of  one 
common  book  for  all  English-speaking  Lutheran  churches 
in  the  United  States,  was  simply  the  carrying  out  of  this 
favorite  thought  of  their  predecessors  in  the  ministry.  To 
those  intimately  acquainted  with  the  two  Northern  bodies, 
the  project  of  uniting  their  English-speaking  churches  in 
the  use  of  one  order  of  service  seemed  Utopian.  It  Is 
probable  that  a  large  portion  of  those  in  both  bodies  who 
voted  for  the  resolution  pledging  them  to  cooperation,  did 
so  with  Httle  expectation  of  any  result.  The  General 
Council,  in  1879,  resolved  to  cooperate,  ''provided  the 
rule  which  shall  decide  all  questions  in  its  preparation  shall 
be :  The  common  consent  of  the  pure  Lutheran  liturgies  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  and,  when  there  is  not  an  entire 
agreement  among  them,  the  consent  of  the  largest  number 
of  those  of  greatest  weight."  The  preparation  and  revision 
of  a  liturgy  with  which  it  had  been  preoccupied  for  years 
prevented  the  General  Synod  from  taking  any  decisive 
action  until  1883,  when  it  resolved 

That  we  hail,  as  one  of  the  most  auspicious  outlooks  of  our  church  in 
America,  the  prospect  of  securing  a  "common  service  for  all  English-speaking 
Lutherans."  And  that,  believing  such  a  service  to  be  feasible  upon  the  ge- 
neric and  well-defined  basis  of  the  "common  consent  of  the  pure  Lutheran 
liturgies  of  the  sixteenth  century,"  we  hereby  declare  our  readiness  to  labor 
to  this  end. 

1  Life,  p.  350. 

2  Upon  motion  of  Rev.  Dr.  J.  B.  Remensnyder. 


THE   COMMON  SERVICE,  507 

According  to  these  instructions,  the  work  was  faithfully 
performed.  Each  general  body  had  its  own  liturgical 
committee.  A  sub-committee  of  one  from  each  body  did 
the  main  work,  which  was  then  referred  for  approval  to 
the  separate  committees.  When  these  committees  differed, 
a  joint  meeting  of  all  three  committees  was  called,  where 
the  understanding  was  that,  in  case  of  a  division,  the  com- 
mittees voted  as  committees,  each  body  being  entitled  to 
one  vote.^ 

At  the  first  meeting  of  the  Joint  Committee  in  Phila- 
delphia, May  12-14,  1885,  the  following  preliminary  prin- 
ciples were  agreed  upon : 

1.  It  is  the  understanding  of  the  whole  joint  committee  that  the  result  of 
our  labors  must  be  referred  to  the  bodies  we  represent. 

2.  We  dare  make  no  service  binding  on  the  congregation,  and  no  part  of  a 
service  should  be  used  any  longer  than  it  serves  to  edification. 

3.  We  agree  to  furnish  the  full  Lutheran  service,  with  all  its  provisions, 
for  all  who  wish  to  use  it. 

4.  If  at  any  time  or  place  the  use  of  the  full  service  is  not  desired,  it  is  in 
entire  conformity  with  good  Lutheran  usage  that  a  simple  service  may  be 
provided  and  used,  in  which  only  the  principal  parts  of  the  service  in  their 
order  are  contained. 

Laying  aside  all  personal  prejudices,  and  ignoring  all 
books  and  orders  of  service  in  use  in  any  of  their  congre- 
gations, the  committee  rigidly  followed  the  rule  set  before 
them.  At  the  same  time,  in  regard  to  certain  features  of 
the  service  not  provided  for  by  the  consent  of  the  htur- 
gies  mentioned,  but  to  which  almost  universal  usage  in 
the  churches  of  this  country  had  given  sanction,  the  com- 

1  The  Southern  General  Synod  was  represented  by  Drs.  E.  T.  Horn,  S.  A. 
Repass,  T.  W.  Dosh,  D.  M.  Gilbert,  W.  B.  Yonce,  and  Mr.  C.  A.  Rose; 
the  General  Synod,  by  Drs.  G.  U.  Wenner,  F.  W.  Conrad,  A.  C.  Wedekind, 
M.  Valentine,  and  E.  J.  Wolf;  and  the  General  Council,  by  Drs.  C.  W. 
Schaefler,  B.  M.  Schmucker,  J.  A.  Seiss,  A.  Spaeth,  S.  Laird,  J.  Kohler, 
C.  F.  Welden,  H.  E.  Jacobs,  and  Revs.  F.  Walz,  F.  F.  Buermyer,  and  J.  F. 
Ohl.  The  sub-committee  consisted  of  Drs.  B.  M.  Schmucker,  G.  U.  Wenner, 
and  E.  T.  Horn. 


5o8  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxvii. 

mittee,  while  so  stating,  made  recommendations  to  their 
general  bodies.  Of  such  additions  an  example  is  found 
in  the  confession  of  sin  and  declaration  of  grace  before 
the  Introit.  All  the  general  bodies  already  used  this  or 
a  similar  confession ;  it  was  found  in  some  liturgies  of  the 
sixteenth  century ;  and  its  adoption  was  in  their  spirit,  as 
there  was  a  widespread  custom  to  have  a  purely  confes- 
sional service  on  Saturday  evening.  In  the  discussions, 
there  was  the  greatest  unanimity  on  all  subjects  except 
the  unimportant  one  of  the  place  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  in 
the  communion  service. 

At  Harrisburg,  in  1885,  the  General  Synod  with  great 
enthusiasm  ratified  the  work  of  the  committee.  Its  action 
was  followed  by  the  General  Council  and  the  General 
Synod,  South.  When  the  **  Common  Service  "  appeared, 
in  1888,  almost  simultaneously  in  two  editions  (one  pub- 
lished at  Philadelphia  by  the  General  Synod,  and  the 
other  at  Columbia,  S.  C,  by  the  United  Synod,  South),  its 
almost  precise  agreement  with  the  "  Church  Book,"  used 
in  the  General  Council  since  1868,  was  made  the  occasion 
of  severe  criticism  of  the  committee  by  some  members  of 
the  General  Synod.  The  agreement  was  explicable,  from 
the  fact  that  the  General  Council  had  constructed  its 
** Church  Book"  upon  the  very  same  principles  which  it 
had  proposed  to  the  other  bodies,  and  they  had  accepted, 
for  the  preparation  of  the  *'  Common  Service."  The  strug- 
gle, however,  was  not  soon  over.  The  opponents  of  the 
"Common  Service"  were  industrious  and  persistent,  and 
its  friends  were  compelled  to  defend  it  in  all  its  parts.  The 
controversy  led  to  much  greater  liturgical  knowledge  than 
had  hitherto  been  prevalent,  and  to  a  deeper  appreciation 
of  liturgical  principles.  The  contest  was  almost  entirely 
confined  to  the  General  Synod.  The  efforts  made  in  the 
meetings  of   the  General   Synod   at  Allegheny   in    1889, 


THE    GOTIVALD    TRIAL.  509 

Lebanon,  Pa.,  in  1891,  and  Canton,  O.,  in  1893,  ^^  over- 
throw or  modify  the  action  previously  taken  in  its  favor, 
failed. 

The  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio  and  English  Synod  of  Mis- 
souri have  since  adopted  the  '*  Common  Service,"  substi- 
tuting only  the  prevalent  distribution  formula  of  the 
seventeenth  for  that  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Never  has 
any  single  Lutheran  order  of  service  had  such  wide  accept- 
ance. The  new  edition  of  the  '*  Church  Book,"  published 
by  the  General  Council  in  1891,  contains  the  ''Common 
Service,"  and  has  carried  out  the  same  principles  in  the 
preparation  of  a  full  set  oY  orders  for  ministerial  acts.  The 
work  of  the  Joint  Committee  has  been  extended  to  the 
preparation  of  a  new  translation  of  the  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion and  the  Small  Catechism.  At  the  last  meeting  in 
1892,  representatives  from  General  Synod,  General  Coun- 
cil, United  Synod  of  the  South,  Synodical  Conference, 
and  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio  were  present. 

Within  the  General  Synod  the  preparation  of  an  ofBcial 
explanation  of  the  catechism  has  been  in  ^progress  for 
some  years,  and  has  excited  considerable  controversy,  on 
the  floor  of  the  General  Synod  and  in  the  church  papers, 
between  the  advocates  of  a  stricter  and  of  a  more  liberal 
confessional  position. 

The  liturgical  controversy  has  in  reality  been  only  an 
episode  of  the  controv^ersy  concerning  the  confessions,  the 
greatest  dread  of  the  opponents  of  the  **  Common  Service  " 
being  the  concession  which  its  general  adoption  might 
make,  as  to  the  correctness  of  the  position  hitherto  occu- 
pied by  the  General  Council.  This  hostility  culminated 
in  1893,  in  the  trial  of  Professor  L.  A.  Gotwald,  D.D.,  of 
Wittenberg  Theological  Seminary,  Springfield,  O.,  upon 
charges,  among  others,  of  holding  "  to  the  type  of  Luther- 
anism  characteristic  of  the  General  Council,"  "  that  all  the 


510  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxvii. 

doctrines  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  are  fundamental," 
and  *'  that  the  doctrinal  position  of  the  General  Synod, 
when  rightly  interpreted,  is  identical  with  that  of  the  Gen- 
eral Council."  To  the  honor  of  the  General  Synod  and 
of  Wittenberg  Seminary,  there  was  not  a  single  vote  to 
condemn  him  on  these  charges. 

The  prohibition,  in  1892,  of  the  teaching  of  distinctive 
Lutheran  doctrines  in  the  religious  instruction  in  Pennsyl- 
vania College,  and  the  official  declaration  that  it  was  not 
a  denominational  college,  communicated  to  the  professors 
of  that  institution,  several  of  whom  are  prominent  Lu- 
theran ministers,  met  with  the  most  numerous  and  decided 
protests,  and  called  forth  from  a  number  of  the  synods  the 
demand  for  synodical  representation  in  the  board  of  a  col- 
lege that  lived  by  the  patronage  and  contributions  of  their 
congregations.  It  was  found  necessary  to  modify  the 
original  action,  in  order  to  prevent  a  widespread  aliena- 
tion among  the  alumni  and  best  friends  of  the  college. 

3.  TJie  Linginstic  Controversy  within  the  General  Coun- 
cil. This  had  its  origin  in  the  distribution  of  the  admin- 
istration of  home  mission  work  to  different  committees, 
according  to  language.  The  German  Home  Mission  Com- 
mittee, composed  of  young  and  zealous  members,  was 
embarrassed  by  the  very  limited  supply  of  German  pas- 
tors for  the  new  mission  stations  which  they  had  in  view, 
and,  after  trying  other  expedients,  arranged  with  Pastor 
Paulson,  of  Kropp,  in  Schleswig-Holstein,  to  furnish  them 
with  candidates  from  a  private  theological  seminary  which 
he  had  established  for  the  training  of  missionaries.  Un- 
derstanding the  General  Council  to  be  responsible  for  the 
arrangement,  he  greatly  enlarged  his  seminary,  expect- 
ing the  material  and  moral  support  of  the  council,  and 
that  the  rapidly  growing  number  of  students  would,  as 
they  graduated,  be  supplied  with  places  in  America.      In- 


/SS(7£S    WITHIN   THE    GENERAL    COUNCIL.  511 

stead  of  confining  themselves  to  remote  mission- fields,  the 
students  sent  under  this  arrangement  soon  pressed  into 
the  German  congregations  in  the  East,  as  they  became 
vacant.  This  policy  was  resisted  as  unwise  and  inexpe- 
dient. In  reply,  it  was  urged  that  the  seminary  at  Phila- 
delphia did  not  give  adequate  German  instruction,  and 
that  the  German  congregations  must  look  elsewhere  for 
their  pastors.  A  monthly  journal  was  established  to 
further  this  interest,  and  issued  from  Reading,  Pa.,  which, 
falHng  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote  beneath  the  severe 
condemnation  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania  for  the 
violence  of  its  attacks,  only  foreshadowed  by  its  early 
death  the  fate  of  all  attempts  to  array  themselves  against 
the  language  and  institutions  of  the  country,  and  to  urge 
the  proposition,  which,  in  Luther's  opinion,  was  almost 
heretical,  that  Lutheranism  and  Germanism  are  one  and 
inseparable.  The  result  of  the  controversy  was  a  general 
deepening  of  the  feeling  that  nativistic  and  linguistic  prej- 
udices must  be  laid  aside.  Never  was  the  importance  of 
the  English  work  of  the  General  Council  so  reahzed  as 
when  the  very  best  friends  and  leaders  of  the  German  in- 
terests of  the  General  Council  had  to  suflfer  as  martyrs 
simply  because  of  the  testimony  which  they  gave  to  the 
lessons  that  their  long  experience  had  taught  them. 

On  the  floor  of  the  General  Council,  however,  a  singu- 
lar condition  of  things  has  prevailed.  The  English  has 
been  made  the  official  language,  and  in  it,  by  the  persist- 
ent demands  of  the  Swedes,  all  discussions  are  conducted. 
With  the  growing  strength  of  the  Swedes,  the  separate 
organization  of  English  congregations  and  of  an  English 
synod  have  been  attended  by  some  indications  of  dissat- 
isfaction. These  manifested  themselves  most  forcibly  at 
the  convention  at  Fort  Wayne  in  1893,  but  were  settled 
to  the  satisfaction  of  all.     The  Swedes  have  begun  the 


512  THE  LUTHERANS.  {Chap,  xxvii. 

work  of  establishing  English  congregations  of  their  own, 
and  providing  for  the  future  anglicizing  of  their  institu- 
tions and  synod. 

But  this  era  has  not  been  mainly  one  of  controversy 
and  disruption.  The  centralizing  forces  have  been  more 
active  than  those  which  separate. 

In  the  South  they  have  led  to  a  reorganization  of  the 
general  body  upon  a  more  definite  confessional  basis  than 
had  previously  obtained.  In  1880  the  General  Synod, 
South,  had  indorsed  the  other  symbolical  books,  as  *'  in  ac- 
cord with,  and  an  unfolding  of,  the  teachings  of  the  Un- 
altered Augsburg  Confession."  Six  years  afterward,  at 
Roanoke,  Va.,  "  the  18,000  Lutherans  who  had  formerly 
been  a  General  Synod,  and  the  14,000  of  the  Holston  and 
Tennessee  synods,  struck  hands  and  began  to  work  to- 
gether to  fulfill  a  common  duty."^  The  General  Synod 
relinquished  its  name  and  organization,  the  new  body 
taking  the  name  of  ''The  United  Synod  of  the  South." 
The  constitution  of  *'  The  United  Synod  "  plants  it  upon 
the  symbolical  books,  "  as  true  and  faithful  developments 
of  the  doctrines  taught  in  the  Augsburg  Confession,  and 
in  the  perfect  harmony  of  one  and  the  same  pure  Scriptural 
faith." 

It  embraces:  i.  Certain  synods  which  formerly  belonged  to  the  General 
Synod,  but  were  separated  from  it  by  the  war,  and  which,  at  the  close  of  the 
war,  found  the  synods  they  were  formerly  associated  with  divided  between 
the  General  Council  and  the  General  Synod,  while  they  themselves  had 
begun  a  development  of  their  own;  2.  Certain  synods  formed  since  that 
separation ;  and  3.  Synods  that  had  never  been  in  the  General  Synod,  but, 
even  from  the  first,  had  maintained  an  opposition  to  it.2 

The  separate  existence  of  this  relatively  small  body  in 
the   South  has  been  the  means  of  bringing  the  General 

1  Dr.  E.  T.  Horn  in  "Distinctive  Doctrines  and  Usages  of  the  General 
Bodies,"  p.  183. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  168. 


THE    UNITED  NORWEGIAN  SYNOD.  513 

Synod  and  General  Council  Into  active  cooperation  in  at 
least  one  sphere,  and  in  promoting  a  more  friendly  rela- 
tion, without  the  compromise  of  any  Lutheran  principle. 
In  1892  it  reestablished  its  Theological  Seminary  at  New- 
berry, S.  C,  with  Rev.  A.  G.  Voigt,  a  graduate  of  Phila- 
delphia, as  professor. 

The  disruption  of  the  old  Norwegian  Synod,  because  of 
the  predestinarian  controversy,  was  followed  by  a  number 
of  conferences  between  the  "  anti-Missourians,"  the  Nor- 
wegian Conference,  and  the  Norwegian  Augustana  Synod, 
resulting,  in  1890,  in  the  formation  of  the  "  United  Nor- 
wegian Church,"  which  comprised,  in  1892,  280  pastors, 
974  congregations,  and  96,497  communicants.  The  three 
theological  seminaries  at  Minneapolis  and  Northfield, 
Minn.,  and  Beloit,  la.,  were  combined  into  one  at  Min- 
neapolis, under  a  scheme  providing  for  a  faculty  of  six 
professors.  The  bond  of  cohesion  has  not  proved  strong 
enough  to  bear  the  strain  which  necessarily  came  with  the 
attempt  to  agree  upon  the  standard  to  be  required  for 
theological  education.  The  ''Conference"  in  1893  with- 
drew, and  the  balance  of  the  United  Synod  has  founded 
another  seminary,  together  with  a  college,  at  Minneapolis. 

The  withdrawal  of  the  Michigan  Synod  from  the  Gen- 
eral Council  was  followed  by  the  union  of  this  synod  with 
the  Synodical  Conference.  In  1891,  with  the  synods  of 
Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  it  formed  the  *'  General  Synod 
of  Wisconsin,  Michigan,  and  Minnesota,"  generally  known 
as  the  Synod  of  the  Northwest,  which  is  intended  to  be  a 
union  within  the  general  body  to  which  all  belong.  The 
Joint  Theological  Seminary  of  these  three  synods,  near 
Milwaukee,  Wis.,  was  consecrated  September  17,  1893,  the 
president  of  the  Missouri  Synod,  and  Professor  Pieper,  of 
the  seminary  at  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  participating. 

Colloquiums  have  been  held  (the  last  one  during  the 


514  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxvii. 

summer  of  1893)  between  representatives  of  the  Ohio  and 
German  Iowa  synods,  bodies  that  have  had  a  common 
conflict  with  Missouri,  and  whose  congregations  are  in 
many  places  side  by  side.  There  seems  to  be  no  reason 
why  they  should  not  come  to  an  understanding.  Both 
synods  have  in  late  years  shown  much  progress  both  in 
their  educational  and  missionary  operations.  The  Joint 
Synod  of  Ohio  has  a  number  of  congregations  and  a  Prac- 
tical Seminary  in  North  Carolina,  and  has  extended  its 
advance  into  the  Northwest  until  it  has  reached  Puget's 
Sound.  Both  the  college  and  seminary  at  Columbus  have 
strengthened  their  faculties  in  the  number  of  professors, 
and  the  ability  they  represent.  The  Iowa  Synod  has 
found  more  commodious  quarters  for  its  seminary  at  its 
old  home  at  Dubuque. 

There  have  been  conferences  also  between  representa- 
tives of  the  Buffalo  Synod  and  of  the  Ministerium  of  New 
York.  The  General  Synod  at  Canton,  O.,  in  1893,  made 
propositions  to  the  other  general  bodies  for  cooperation 
in  practical  work.  The  General  Council  responded  at 
Fort  Wayne,  Ind.,  in  October,  1893,  by  appointing  a  com- 
mittee to  meet  that  of  the  General  Synod,  and  of  any 
other  bodies  that  might  accept  the  invitation. 

Unofflcially  there  have  been  a  number  of  movements  in- 
fluencing Lutherans  in  common,  and  without  regard  to  their 
synodical  relations.  In  1 883  the  celebration  of  the  four  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  Luther's  birth  revealed,  in  a  surpris- 
ing degree,  the  great  hold  which  the  Reformer  has  upon  the 
Protestant  Christianity  of  this  country.  It  led  to  a  general 
review  of  Luther's  life  and  doctrine,  and  a  higher  apprecia- 
tion of  the  distinctive  features  of  Luther's  work.  Not 
only  were  the  largest  buildings  of  our  great  cities  inade- 
quate to  contain  the  large  numbers  of  those  assembling 
for  a  common   celebration,  and  a  tribute  laid   upon  the 


THE   LUTHER   JUBILEE.  515 

highest  gifts  of  oratory  and  the  best  musical  skill,  but  the 
literature  demanded  and  inspired  by  the  occasion  was 
large.  Many  so-called  Lutherans  awoke  for  the  first  time 
to  a  true  sense  of  what  was  contained  in  their  heritage. 
What  had  been  heretofore  a  matter  of  timid  and  awkward 
apology,  or  even  of  censure  echoed  from  other  sources, 
was  found  to  be  a  matter  of  respect  and  approval  by  the 
best  men  of  other  communions.  Interest  in  Luther  also 
led  others  to  an  interest  in  Lutherans.  From  this  Luther 
Jubilee  the  Martin  Luther  Society  of  New  York  City 
originated.  It  was  an  association  of  laymen  of  standing, 
without  regard  to  their  synodical  relations,  which  held  an 
annual  celebration  with  an  oration  on  November  10,  and 
a  banquet,  with  invited  guests,  generally  in  February.  It 
was  especially  active  in  the  erection  of  a  monument  to 
Luther  in  Washington. 

The  benefits  of  the  social  reunions  thus  secured  sug- 
gested their  extension  to  a  wider  sphere.  Young  People's 
Lutheran  Associations  were  formed  in  a  number  of  the 
churches  of  the  General  Council,  General  Synod,  and  even 
of  the  Missouri  Synod,  which  together  united  in  the  Young 
People's  Lutheran  Association  (Central  Association)  of 
New  York  City.  It  publishes  a  sprightly  monthly  paper, 
"The  Lutheran  Review,"  and  has  extended  itself  gradu- 
ally throughout  the  State  of  New  York.  A  convention 
was  held  in  Utica,  N.  Y.,  in  June,  1893.  The  name  has 
been  changed  to  that  of  ''  The  Lutheran  League,"  and  the 
purpose  is  to  extend  the  system  over  the  country.  It  has 
been  stimulated  greatly  in  some  places  by  the  pressure 
brought  to  bear  upon  Lutheran  pastors  and  congregations 
to  unite  in  the  *' Christian  Endeavor"  movement,  for 
which  this  has  been  offered  as  a  substitute. 

A  very  eloquent  popular  history  of  the  Lutlieran  Church 
in  America,  by  Dr.  E.  J.  Wolf,  of  the  Theological  Seminary 


5l6  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxvii. 

at  Gettysburg,  published  in  1889,  was  circulated  by  the 
tens  of  thousands,  both  in  English  and  as  translated  into 
German  with  additions  by  Dr.  J.  Nicum,  of  the  General 
Council.  Its  effect  was  soon  traceable  in  the  wider  out- 
look and  the  deeper  acquaintance  concerning  the  church 
diffused  among  the  people.  Previously  the  tendency  in 
many  quarters  was  to  conceive  of  the  general  body  to 
which  one  belonged  as,  properly  speaking,  the  Lutheran 
Church  of  America,  with  some  outside  synods  numerically 
not  very  strong,  or,  if  strong,  of  not  very  great  import- 
ance in  learning  or  influence,  or  devotion  to  the  cause  of 
Christ.  Especially  was  this  the  case  where  such  bias  was 
fostered  by  the  perhaps  single  church  paper  that  entered 
the  home.  Before  this.  Dr.  Mann's  "  Life  and  Times  of 
Muhlenberg"  had  informed  the  clergy  and  the  more  in- 
telligent and  interested  laity  concerning  details  in  the  early 
history  of  the  church  in  this  country,  the  apprehension 
of  which  had  previously  been  vague  and  incorrect.  It 
had  demonstrated  beyond  dispute  the  confessional  posi- 
tion of  the  fathers  from  Halle,  and  their  thoroughgoing 
Lutheran  practice.  Ten  thousand  copies  of  Gerberding's 
**  Way  of  Salvation  in  the  Lutheran  Church"  were  soon 
disposed  among  English-speaking  Lutherans  without  dis- 
tinction of  synod.  An  effort  made  by  another  writer  to 
show  the  great  indebtedness  of  the  Church  of  England  to 
Lutheran  influences,  and  to  trace  the  relations  between 
the  Lutheran  and  Episcopal  orders  of  service,  met  with 
the  kindest  reception  in  all  parts  of  the  Lutheran  Church. 
The  appearance  of  a  volume  in  1893,  in  which  representa- 
tives of  the  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio,  General  Synod,  German 
Iowa  Synod,  General  Council,  Synodical  Conference,  and 
United  Synod  in  the  South  state  and  explain  their  chief 
characteristics,  show  that  the  discussions  have  passed  be- 
yond the  stage  where  there  is  a  willingness  to  hear  only 


BISHOP   VON  SCHEELE,  5  I  7 

one  side.  These  writers,  treating  of  their  themes  sepa- 
rately, and  without  knowledge  of  what  others  wrote,  agree 
in  declaring  that  the  sincere  acceptance  of  all  the  doctrines 
of  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  is  determinative 
of  the  Lutheran  character  of  a  minister  or  church.  The 
ampler  confessions  received  by  five  out  of  six  of  the 
writers  are  regarded  as  adding  nothing  to  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  but  as  necessary  only  to  guard  its  real  mean- 
ing against  perversions  and  misinterpretations. 

''  The  Lutheran  Manual "  of  Dr.  J.  B.  Remensnyder, 
which  was  published  in  the  autumn  of  1893,  is  a  valuable 
presentation  of  the  doctrines,  worship,  and  government  of 
the  Lutheran  Church  which  will  doubtless  be  widely  cir- 
culated without  distinction  of  inter-ecclesiastical  lines. 
Lenker's  *'  Lutherans  in  all  Lands  "  and  its  predecessor, 
Roth's  "  Handbook  of  Lutheranism,"  are  interesting  ex- 
hibits of  statistics. 

The  celebration  of  the  tercentenary  publication  of  the 
Decree  of  Upsala  of  1593,  by  which  the  Church  of  Sweden 
was  placed  upon  a  secure  Lutheran  basis,  brought  to  this 
country,  in  May,  1893,  as  the  representative  of  the  King 
of  Sweden,  Rt.  Rev.  K.  H.  G.  von  Scheele,  D.D.,  Bishop 
of  Visby,  one  of  the  most  prominent  living  theologians 
of  the  Lutheran  Church.  His  stay  of  three  months  was 
distinguished  by  ovations  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  from 
New  York  to  San  Francisco,  Lutherans  of  widely  diverg- 
ing synods  uniting  in  celebrations  of  welcome  and  congrat- 
ulation. Of  the  several  memorable  popular  outpourings 
among  the  Swedes,  the  most  important  was  at  Rock 
Island,  111.,  where  the  representatives  of  the  Ministerium 
of  Pennsylvania,  German  Synod  of  Iowa,  and  Norwegian 
Synod  stood  side  by  side  with  the  Swedish  bishop  before 
the  thousands  of  Swedish  Lutherans  who  surrounded 
them.     The   interest    reached   its  climax   as   Bishop  von 


5l8  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxvii. 

Scheele  and  Dr.  Fritschel  vied  with  each  other  in  their 
tributes  to  what  the  Germans  and  the  Swedes  had  done 
in  the  particular  field  which  each  cultivated.  German 
Lutherans  could  not  but  be  impressed  with  the  contrast 
between  the  one  thoroughly  united  church  of  Sweden  and 
the  divided  churches  of  Germany,  and  between  the  single 
strong  Swedish  body,  the  Augustana  Synod,  comprising 
the  Swedish  Church  in  America,  and  the  many  divisions 
of  the  German  and  German-American  synods. 

Among  those  representing  the  descendants  of  the 
Lutherans  of  Muhlenberg's  time,  the  chief  progress  in 
educational  work  during  this  era  has  been  in  the  establish- 
ment of  a  theological  seminary  in  Chicago,  and  the 
removal  of  the  seminary  in  Philadelphia  to  one  of  the 
most  desirable  suburbs.  Mount  Airy,  where  it  has  ampler 
accommodations  for  students  and  libraries.  The  General 
Synod  has  added  Midland  College,  Atchison,  Kan.,  to 
Carthage,  III,  in  the  West.  Gustavus  Adolphus  College, 
St.  Peter,  Minn.,  with  nearly  three  hundred  students  and 
fifteen  professors,  while  founded  in  1862,  has  made  its 
chief  advance  in  recent  years.  Bethany  College,  Linds- 
borg,  Kan.,  founded  by  the  Swedish  Augustana  Synod  in 
1 88 1,  by  a  vigorous  effort  Hfted  a  debt  of  $75,000  from  its 
shoulders,  which  had  threatened  its  existence,  and  enrolled 
in  1893  twenty- five  professors  and  instructors,  and  four 
hundred  and  twenty  students. 

The  attractions  of  a  city  led  to  the  agitation  of  the 
removal  of  the  seminary  of  the  General  Synod  from  Get- 
tysburg, Pa.,  to  Baltimore  or  Washington.  But  with  the 
question  decided  adversely,  preparations  are  in  progress  for 
more  ample  accommodations  for  its  increasing  students. 

The  foreign  mission  work  of  both  General  Synod  and 
General  Council  has  been  constantly  enlarging.     In  the 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 


519 


India  mission  of  the  former,  with  Guntur  as  the  center, 
the  estabHshment  of  the  Watts  Memorial  College,  with 
Rev.  L.  B.  Wolf  as  principal,  has  been  of  special  impor- 
tance. It  numbered,  last  year,  thirty-four  teachers  and 
five  hundred  and  twenty-five  students.  The  zenana  work 
has  been  in  charge  of  six  lady  missionaries  (Misses  Dryden, 
Kugler,  Sadtler,  and  Kistler,  Mrs.  Wolf  and  Mrs.  Aberly). 
The  number  of  communicants  reported  is  6178,  and  bap- 
tized members,  old  and  young,  14,31 1.  The  six  ordained 
American  pastors  in  the  field  (Unangst,  Uhl,  Wolf,  Yeiser, 
Albrecht,  and  Aberly)  have  recently  been  joined  by  Rev. 
Dr.  Harpster,,  the  former  missionary  in  the  Palnaud,  who 
has  returned  to  the  field  after  an  absence  of  seventeen 
years.  The  African  mission  has  two  ordained  mission- 
aries (Day,  Goll),  two  native  pastors,  and  one  hundred 
and  eighty  communicants. 

The  foreign  mission  work  of  the  General  Council  in 
India  has  lost  by  death  several  most  valuable  missionaries 
(Carlson,  Artman,  Dietrich,  Groening,  Jr.).  But  the  church 
has  responded  to  the  call  for  others  to  fill  their  places. 
The  veteran  Dr.  Schmidt,  inducted  into  his  office  by  Dr. 
Heyer,  still  remains.  As  Groening  died.  Rev.  E.  Pohl,  of 
the  Breklum  Society,  arrived  at  Rajahmundry  on  a  visit. 
After  temporarily  taking  charge  of  the  schools,  by  per- 
mission of  his  own  society,  he  has  become,  in  1893,  after 
eleven  years'  experience,  permanently  identified  with  the 
mission  of  the  General  Council.  Besides  Mr.  Pohl,  Revs. 
Bahnisch,  Arps,  and  Isaacson  were  added  in  1893  to  the 
force  (Schmidt,  McCready,  Edman,  Kuder).  The  zenana 
work  has  also  been  commenced,  under  Misses  Sadtler  and 
Schade.  The  statistics  of  the  General  Council  Missions 
for  1893  exhibit  a  communicant  membership  of  144 1,  and 
the  total  number  of  Christians  as  3757.     The  gospel  is 


520  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxvii. 

preached  in  146  villages,  and  Christian  schools  conducted 
in  95  villages.  A  call  is  made  for  the  establishment  of 
schools  in  75  more  villages. 

The  General  Synod,  South,  sent  out  Rev.  W.  P.  Swartz 
as  their  missionary  to  India  in  1885,  to  cooperate  with  the 
mission  at  Guntur ;  but  as  he  withdrew  after  a  very  brief 
service,  they  determined  to  find  a  missionary  field  inde- 
pendent of  the  two  other  bodies.  The  United  Synod 
has  accordingly  established  a  mission  in  Japan. 

Rev.  J.  A.  B.  Scherer,  the  first  missionary,  sailed  Feb- 
ruary, 1892.  He  spent  about  a  year  in  Tokyo,  in  study 
of  the  language.  Having  been  joined  early  in  1893  by 
Rev.  R.  B.  Peery,  in  February  of  that  year  he  removed 
to  Saga,  in  the  island  of  Kyushyu.  There  they  have 
definitely  begun  their  work,  in  which  they  are  served  by 
a  native  Christian  helper,  Yamanonchi  San.  So  far,  they 
have  baptized  but  two  converts.  They  maintain  regular 
services.  Mr.  Scherer  teaches  in  a  Japanese  school,  whose 
teachers  and  pupils  frequent  his  Bible-classes,  and  Mr. 
Peery  and  Yamanonchi  conduct  a  night-school.  With 
the  aid  of  competent  scholars  they  have  secured  a  transla- 
tion of  Luther's  Small  Catechism  into  Japanese,  and  this 
has  been  published  in  Japan. 

A  new  impulse  has  been  given  to  the  deaconess  work 
within  the  past  ten  years.  The  institute  established  at 
Pittsburg  in  1849  by  Rev.  Dr.  Passavant  accompHshed  a 
great  work  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  deaconesses  it 
was  able  to  secure.  But  the  attention  of  the  church  was 
so  occupied  with  other  subjects,  that,  with  the  prejudices 
the  institution  encountered,  no  strong  hold  was  gained 
upon  the  interest  of  the  people.  They  admired  and  com- 
mended the  institutions  of  mercy  that  arose  from  this 
impulse,  but  there  was  no  readiness  to  devote  their  daugh- 
ters to  the  life  of  self-denial  that  was  demanded. 


DEACONESSES.  52 1 

The  German  Hospital  in  Philadelphia,  which  had  been 
administered  in  the  interests  of  an  irreligious  humanita- 
rianism,  early  in  the  eighties  came,  through  the  efforts  of 
its  president,  John  D.  Lankenau,  under  very  decided 
church  influence.  The  result  was  that  it  passed  from  a 
period  of  general  indifference  into  one  of  unexampled 
prosperity,  with  three  of  the  most  prominent  German 
Lutheran  clergymen  of  the  city  upon  its  board.  A  larger 
number  of  nurses  being  needed,  as  well  as  of  a  better 
class,  it  was  decided  to  apply  to  Germany  for  Lutheran 
deaconesses.  Seven  arrived,  June  19,  1884.  But  it  was 
soon  found,  that  if  the  institution  was  to  be  a  permanent 
one  in  America,  a  training-school  was  needed  and  a 
**  Home,"  to  which  the  deaconesses  could  retire  when  dis- 
abled by  disease  or  old  age.  The  almost  unparalleled 
munificence  of  Mr.  Lankenau  promptly  met  this  need. 
At  a  cost  of  half  a  million  of  dollars,  he  erected  directly 
opposite  Girard  College  by  far  the  most  magnificent  of 
deaconesses'  institutes  in  existence.  It  is  most  complete 
in  all  its  appointments.  The  annual  expenses  of  the  vast 
establishment  are  with  equal  liberality  borne  by  the 
founder.  The  rector  of  the  Home  must  always  be  a  Lu- 
theran clergyman. 

There  has  been  disappointment  that,  with  these  advan- 
tages, the  number  of  sisters  has  not  been  more  largely  in- 
creased. The  last  reports  give  their  present  force  as  forty- 
one  ;  of  these  twenty-five  are  engaged  in  the  German 
Hospital.  A  similar  institution  has  been  begun  in  Omaha 
by  the  Swedes,  the  first  sisters  having  been  trained  in  Phil- 
adelphia. A  new  development  of  the  oldest  branch  in 
America  under  Dr.  Passavant  is  about  starting  at  Mil- 
waukee, Wis.  The  General  Synod  has,  for  several  years, 
been  agitating  the  matter,  and  has  several  sisters  in  train- 
ing.     The  work  has  also  been  begun  in  the  Ohio  Synod. 


522  THE  LUTHERANS.  [Chap,  xxvii. 

Several  small  synods  have  originated  during  this  period, 
from  the  increase  of  immigration  of  certain  nationalities. 
A  strong  current  of  Icelanders  is  flowing  toward  the 
Northwest,  where  in  North  Dakota  and  Manitoba  over 
seven  thousand  members  are  now  organized  into  a  synod. 
At  Winnipeg,  they  have  one  congregation  with  over  a 
thousand  members.  One  fourth  the  population  of  Ice- 
land, if  not  more,  has  within  the  last  twenty  years  entered 
this  region.  Their  candidates  for  the  ministry  are  being 
trained  in  the  institutions  of  the  General  Council.  The 
only  Icelandic  church  paper  in  existence  is  the  one  pub- 
lished by  this  synod.  The  Suomai  Synod  is  composed 
of  a  small  body  of  Finns.  The  Danish  Lutheran  Associ- 
ation is  an  offshoot  from  the  Norwegian-Danish  Confer- 
ence, whose  center  is  at  Minneapolis.  At  the  meeting  of 
the  General  Council  in  1893,  a  delegation  appeared  from 
the  German  Augsburg  Synod  to  ascertain  the  conditions 
of  union. 

The  statement  which  has  been  already  made  in  some 
quarters  that  there  are  in  America  seventeen  kinds  of 
Lutherans,  as  distinctly  separated  as  different  denomina- 
tions, is  explained  only  when  unity  of  organization  is 
made  the  standard  of  denominational  unity.  Such  prin- 
ciple, if  strictly  applied,  would  make  of  the  Lutherans  of 
Sweden  a  different  denomination  from  the  Swedish  Lu- 
therans of  America,  and  the  Presbyterians  of  New  York 
a  different  denomination  from  those  of  Canada.  With  the 
Lutheran  Church,  the  organization  is  a  matter  of  conven- 
ience and  expediency,  and  it  is  entirely  possible  for  those 
who  are  one  in  faith,  because  of  local  or  linguistic  reasons 
to  maintain  separate  organizations.  When  in  a  body  pre- 
dominantly Norwegian  enough  Danes  accumulate  to  form 
a  by  nod  of  their  own,  this  does  not  change  the  character  of 
their  Lutheranism,  or  make  of  them  a  separate  denomina- 


THE  NEED   OF   THE  HOUR.  523 

tion.  The  real  lines  of  division  among  Christians  are  those 
of  faith,  not  those  of  organization. 

Whatever  may  be  the  divisions  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
exhibited  by  the  statistical  tables,  they  may  be  classified 
according  to  the  types  described  in  the  preceding  pages 
of  Zinzendorf,  Berkenmeyer,  and  Muhlenberg.  The  gen- 
eral bodies  comprise  exclusively  descendants  of  Germans, 
except  that  the  Swedes  are  found  in  the  General  Council. 
The  independent  synods  do  not  attempt  to  justify  their 
permanent  isolation,  but  are  distracted  in  their  choice  of 
one  or  -other  of  the  bodies.  The  general  bodies  them- 
selves have  a  nearer  relation  toward  each  other  than  for- 
merly, and  in  the  common  service  have  proved  their  ability 
to  co5perate  upon  a  clearly  defined  confessional  basis. 
They  act  and  react  upon  each  other  through  currents  of 
influence  that  flow  beneath  the  barriers  that  separate  them. 

The  great  need  of  the  hour  is  for  the  establishment  of 
strong  institutions  thoroughly  equipped  for  the  cultivation 
of  theological  science,  so  as  to  communicate  to  the  relig- 
ious world  of  America  the  rich  treasures  of  Lutheran 
theology,  and  in  the  English  language  and  the  molds  of 
thought  of  the  nineteenth  century  to  proclaim  clearly  and 
fearlessly  the  very  same  precious  truths  of  the  gospel, 
which  gave  her  a  name  and  made  her  a  power  in  the 
days  of  the  Reformation.  As  she  is  faithful  to  these 
truths  she  will  become  more  and  more  thoroughly  united, 
and  will  continue  with  ever-increasing  efficiency  to  develop 
those  fields  in  her  practical  life,  where,  notwithstanding  the 
obstacles  she  has  encountered,  her  efforts  in  this  country, 
although  made  in  all  humility,  and  characterized  by  the 
frailty  that  attaches  to  everything  earthly,  have  not  been 
without  marked  evidences  of  the  divine  blessing. 


INDEX 


Aberly,  J.  (India),  519. 

Absolution,    public,    40,    202,    232 ; 

private  (see  Confession). 
Acrelius,  Israel,  Provost,  58,  81,  86, 

92,  94,   100,   103-9,   189,  218,  225, 

239,  253-5. 
Addison,  111.,  400,  499. 
Africa,  mission  in.     See  Muhlenberg 

Mission. 
Akron  Declaration,  481  sqq. 
Albany,  N.  Y.,  47,  51,  53,  57,  59,  61, 

94,  118,  122  sq.,  127,  130,  310,319, 

333- 
Albrecht  (India),  519. 
Alexander,  Dr.  A.,  365. 
Alexander,  Dr.  J.  W.,  324. 
Allegheny,  508. 
Allegheny  Synod,  437. 
Allen,  William,  189,  202. 
AUentown,  Pa.,  435,  467. 
Altar  fellowship,  480  sqq. 
Altdorf,  University  of,  121. 
American    Board   of    Com.   for    For. 

Miss.,  375  sq. 
American  Home  Miss.  Soc,  413. 
American  Lutheranism,  369,  386,  492, 

495- 
American  Tract  Society,  366,  410. 
Amsterdam,     Holland,      22-58,     121 

sqq.  ;   Church  Order,  125  sq.,  146, 

183,  252,  266. 
Anabaptism  and  Anabaptists,  25,  28, 

66,  71. 
Andersen,  Paul,  412. 
Andover,  Mass.,  417. 
Andreae,  Jacob,   32 ;    Lawrence,   64- 

70;   Gothus,  70. 
Andros,  Edmund,  Gov.  (New  York), 

60  sq. 
Ann  Arbor,  Mich.,  410. 
Anne,  Queen,  112,  142  sq.,  149  sq. 
Anspach,  Dr.  F.  R.,  392,  441. 
Anspach,  Margraviate  of,  85. 


Antigua,  112. 

Antinomians,  ;^^. 

Anton,  Leopold,  Archbp.  (Upsala), 
152;   Paul  (Halle),  140. 

Antwerp,  25-31,  38,  47,  80. 

Apostolical  succession,  78  sq. 

"  Appeal  to  the  Germans,"  330. 

Arensius,  Bernard  (New  Amsterdam), 
59  sqq. 

Arents,  John  (Amsterdam),  28. 

Arminius  and  Arminianism,  36,  45. 

Arnd  Gottfried  (North  Carolina),  296, 
320. 

Arndt,  John,  143,  232,  399. 
'  Artman,  H.  G.  B.  (India),  490,  519. 
i  Asbury,  Bishop,  335. 

Augsburg,  144,  157,  180. 

Augsburg  Confession,  26-8,  ;^^  sq., 
41,  45,  52,  71,  73  sq.,  86,  182,  234, 
238,  241,  264,  279,  312  sq.,  340  sq., 
343,  358,  367  sq.,  385,  420  sqq., 
424  sq.,  427  sqq.,  429,  450,  454, 
456  sqq.,  460,  471,  473,  477,  509 
sq.,  512,  517;   Synod,  522. 

Augustana  College,  450,  491  ;  vSynod, 
413,  447,  450,  476,  478,  501,  518. 

Augusti,  C.  J.  W.,  42. 

Augustinians,  23  sqq. 

Auren,  Jonas,  90,  95,  100. 

Bachman,  John,  333,  390,  439,  455, 

505- 

Eager,  John  George,  292,  300. 

Bahnisch,  Paul,  519. 

Baker,  John  C,  377  sqq.,  389. 

Baldwin's  Commentaries,  122. 

Baltimore,  Md.,  291  sq.,  358,  392, 
418. 

Bancroft,  George,  157  sq. 

Baptism,  administration  of  (Amster- 
dam), 38,  40  (Sweden),  68  (Swedes 
in  Pennsylvania),  108  (Ebenezer, 
Ga. ),  166;  demands  of  Reformed, 
49;   doctrine,  6,  316,  424. 


525 


526 


INDEX. 


Baptists,  204,  336,  345. 

Barmen,  Missionary  Seminary  at,  410. 

Barnes,  Robert  (England),  23,  25. 

Barneveldt,  John  of,  36. 

Barren  Hill,  Montgomery  County, 
Pa.,  256,  289,  295. 

Barton,  Thomas,  280. 

Basle,  410. 

Bassler,  G.,  386  sq.,  472. 

Baugher,  Henry  L.,  Sr.,  293,  373, 
416,  434. 

Baunigarten,  Sigismund  J.  (Halle), 
141. 

Beates,  William,  389. 

Bechtel  (GermantOM'n),  203  sqq. 

Becker,  C.  F.,  488. 

Beekman  (New  York),  121,  126,  129. 

Bekker,  John  (Pistorius),  25. 

Belgic  Confession,  27. 

Beneficiary  education,  374. 

Bengel,  J.  A.,  199,  310. 

Bengston,  Andrew  (Swedish-Ameri- 
can), 87. 

Bennett  law,  447. 

Benthem,  H.  L.,  39,  50,  183. 

Benzelius,  Archbp.  (Upsala),  93,  253. 

Bergman,  J.  E.  (Georgia),  300;  C. 
F.  (Georgia),  335. 

Berkeley,  William,  Gov.  (Virginia), 
150. 

Berkemeier,  William,  486. 

Berkenmeyer,  W.  C,  117,  12 1-9, 
177,  250,  310,  523. 

Berks  County,  Pa.,  291,  295. 

Berlin,  Prussia,  405. 

Berne,  Articles  of,  204. 

Bernheim,  G.  D.,  132,  150,  319  sq. 

Berthelsdorf,  197. 

Bethany  College,  Kansas,  518. 

Bible,  family,  234 ;  history,  233  ;  In- 
stitute, 139;   societies,  139. 

Bird,  F.  M.,  484. 

Bishops,  Lutheran,  13,  279;  suffra- 
gan, 97  ;  in  Sweden,  67,  76  sq.  See 
also  Episcopacy. 

Bittle,  D.  F.,  392,  434;  D.  H.,  392, 

434- 
Bjork,  Eric,  90-8,  105,  109,  122. 
Bodenteich  (Germany),  127. 
Boerner,  C.  F.,  212. 
Bogardus,  Everardus,  48. 
Bogatsky,  399. 


Bohme,  A.  W.,  143  sq.  ;  J.   P.,  201, 

203. 
Boltzius,  139,  146,  158,  160  sqq.,  174, 

215,  221,  297. 
Book  of  Common  Prayer.     See  Com- 
mon Prayer. 
Book  of  Concord.     See  Concord. 
Borell,  Andrew,  255,  259. 
Born,  P.,  435. 
Bos,  Jacob,  128. 
Boston,  Mass.,  387. 
Botetourt  County,  Va.,  334. 
Bouck,  W.  C,  Gov.  (New  York),  352. 
Brandenburg-Magdeburg  Order,  267; 

Nuremberg  Order,  30. 
Brandt,  Gerard  (Arminian  historian), 

26,  28,  zz  sq. 
Braun,  A.  T.,  311,  332  sq. 
Bray,  Nicholas,  146. 
Breithaupt,  J.  J.  (Halle),  140. 
Breklum,  519. 
Bremen,  26. 
Breslau,  405. 
Brevoort,  L.,  117. 
Brobst,  S.  K.,  442,  461,  465,  493. 
Brochholls,  Lieut. -Gov.,  60. 
Brochman,  Caspar,  90,  122. 
Brodhead,  J.  R.,  54. 
Brohm,  400. 
Bromel,  Dr.  A.,  403  sq. 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  446. 
Brown,   J.    A.,    392,   427,   436,   462, 

466. 
Brunnholtz,  Peter,  146,  220  sq.,  233,- 

239-46,  263,  267,  291,  325,  343. 
Brussels,  martyrs  of,  24. 
Brycelius,  281,  285,  302. 
Bucks  County,  Pa.,  291. 
Buddeus,  J.  F.,  200. 
Buermyer,  F.  P\,  507. 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  382,  396,  446 ;   Synod, 

396,  405,  407,  514. 
Biinger,  400. 

Burgman  (London  pastor),  284. 
Burk,  J.  F.,  199. 
Burkhardt  (London  pastor),  146. 
Butler,  J.  G.,  334. 
Cabarras  County,  N.  C,  296. 
Calenberg  liturgy,  267. 
Caliconhook  (Darby),  257. 
Callenberg,  Dr.  J.  H.,  139,  212,  224. 
Calovius,  Dr.  A.,  172. 


INDEX. 


527 


Calvinism  and  Calvinists,  26-9,  36, 
49  sq.,  50  sq.,  71,  115,  203,  492  sq., 

504- 

Camp,  N.  Y.,  123. 

Camp-meetings,  314. 

Campanius,  17,  82  sqq.,  90,   119. 

Canada,  301,  335,  373,  387,  472,  476, 
499. 

Candles,  71. 

Canisius,  catechism  of,  70. 

Canstein,  Baron  C.  H.  (Bible  Insti- 
tute), 139. 

Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  104,  143, 
147,  149,  280. 

Canton,  O.,  391,  509,  514- 

Carlisle,  Pa.,  332. 

Carlson,  A.  B.,  490,  519;   E.,  412  sq. 

Carnell,  S.  P.,  497- 

Carolinas,  the,  150. 

Carroll,  H.  K.,  437. 

Catechism,  use  of,  42,  89,  107,  135, 
147,  165,  233,  328.     See  Luther. 

Catechists,  312. 

Central  Illinois  Synod,  467. 

Charles  IX.  (Sweden),  71  sq. 

Charles  XL  (Sweden),  88,  95. 

Charleston,  S.  C,  150,  159,  214-18, 
294,  297,  ZZZ^  335.  390,  420,  423, 

455- 

Chemnitz,  Dr.  Martm,  32,  502. 

Cherokees,  167. 

Chester  County,  Pa.,  292  sq. 

Chester,  Pa.,  85,  87,  98,  124,  231  sq., 
236. 

Chestnut  Hill,  Phila.,  295. 

Chicago,  111.,  387,  406,  412,  446,  491. 

Chiliasm,  408,  476  sq. 

Chrischona,  missionary  seminary,  411. 

Christ  Church  (Phila.),  98. 

Christ's  Church  (Lutheran,  New 
York),  319. 

Christian  II.  (Denmark),  24. 

Christian  life,  9,  15,  318. 

Christina,  Queen  (Sweden),  72 ;  Fort 
(see  Wilmington). 

Christology,  Lutheran,  6. 

Church  book,  339  sq.,  484  sqq.,  488, 
508  sq.  ;  constitutions,  181,  256, 
262,  299,  485  ;  council,  74,  106  sq., 
124,  127  sq.,  241,  244,  265;  ex- 
tension, 438  ;  marks  of,  133  ;  mem- 
bership, 340;  organization,  11,  181  ; 


papers,  440  sqq.  ;  schools,  11,  407; 

true,  198,  402;  wardens,  107;  year, 

II. 
Church  Missionary  Society,  487  sq. 
Church    of    England,    59,     99,    128, 

147   sq.,    171,    238,   248,   256    sq., 

275,  278  sqq.,  282,    287,  292,  297, 

299.  301,  Z^'^,  375'  516. 
Churching  of  women,  108. 
Claussen,  C.  L.,  411  sq. 
Claverack,  N.  Y.,  120,  123. 
Cleveland,  O.,  406,  446. 
Cleves,  III. 

Cobles'kill,  N.  Y.,  115,  130, 
Cock,  Capt.  Lasse,  89. 
Coetus,  280. 
Coligni,  Admiral,  26. 
Collections    in     Europe,     176,     185, 

192  sq. 
Collects,  238,  271. 
Colleges,  435  sqq. 
Collin,  Dr.  Nicholas,  303  sq. 
Columbia   College,  New   York,  295, 

332,  353,  391. 
Columbus,  O.,  383,  389,  391. 
Comenius,  148. 
Comforter  of  the  sick,  44,  48. 
Common  Prayer,  Book  of,  123,   143, 

147,  214,  251,  275,  297,  341. 
Common  service,  337,  505  sqq. 
Concord,   Book  of,   32,    73,   91,    149, 

394,  473  (see  Symbolical  Books) ; 

Formula  of,  31  sqq.,  41,  116,  212, 

222,  432,  473,  502. 
Concord,  N.  C,  452. 
Conewago.       See      Hanover,      York 

County,  Pa. 
Conference,  Norwegian-Danish,  500. 
Conferences,  200,  255,  335,  357,  428. 
Confession,    private,    228,   232,    277, 

424  sqq.  ;    public,    166,    201,    232, 

270,  273. 
Confessional  obligations,  41,   71,  73, 

180,    212,    221    sq.,    226,    240  sq., 

261,   264,   291,   296,   302,  312,  319 

sq.,  367  sq.,  400,  406,  409  sq.,  421 

sq.,   427    sq.,   430,   432,   456  sqq., 

460,  471  sqq.,  512. 
Confessions    of    faith.      See    Confes- 
sional      Obligations,       Symbolical 

Books. 
Confirmation,  12,  79>  228. 


528 


INDEX. 


Congregational  government,  74,  181, 

256,  407,  474. 
Conrad,  F.  W.,  392,  507;  V.  L.,  441, 
Consecration  of  churches,  91  sq.,  240. 
Consistorium,   congregational,  43 ;   of 

Amsterdam,  45,    51,    57    sqq.,   87. 

See  Amsterdam. 
Constitution,       congregational      (see 

Church     Constitutions) ;    synodical 

(see  Synodical  Constitution). 
Controversies,  9. 
Conventicles,  52. 
Corpus  evangelicum,  320. 
Coxsackie,  N.  Y.,  123. 
Cramer,  August,  419. 
Cranmer's  catechism,  30. 
Creed,  singing  of,  99,  108. 
Cresheim  Creek,  no. 
Criticism,  destructive,  309,  318. 
Crucifix,  108. 
Cruse,  C.  F.,  361. 
Cumberland,  Md.,  391. 
Cumberland  Valley,  295. 
Curagoa,  49,  311,  315. 
Cutter,  W.  I.,  380. 
Dacke  Nils,  70. 

Danes,  411,  414;  conference  of,  501. 
Danish  Church  in  America,  501. 
Daser,  Rev.,  297. 
Day,  D.  A.,  497,  519. 
Deaconesses,  387,  520. 
Deacons,  37  sq.,  43  sq.,  182,  265  sq. 
Dedekenn's  "  Consilia,"  122. 
"Definite  Platform,"  367,  424  sqq., 

436. 
Deindorfer,  J.,  409. 
Delaware,  57,  209. 
Delegates,  interchange  of,  358,   362, 

495- 
Delitzsch,  408. 
Demme,   Charles  F.,   337,  377,  388, 

391,  420,  461. 
Denmark,  63,  193. 
Descensus,  the,  425. 
Detroit,  Mich.,  446. 
Deventer,  Council  of,  25. 
Deyling,  S.,  212. 
Dickinson  College,  332,  353,  373. 
Diehl,  G.,  392,  441. 
Dieren,  Von,  123,  177. 
Dietrich,  F.  S.,  490. 
Dietrichson,  J.  W.,  44. 


Diets  of  1877  and  1878,  495  sq. 
Dioceses,    Swedish,    organization    of, 

77- 
Discipline,  43,  71,  233. 
Doctrinal  questions,  43. 
Doctrine,  Lutheran,  12. 
Dongan,  Gov.,  60. 
Dort,  Synod  of,  36,  49  sq.,  54. 
Dosh,  T.  W.,  507. 
Drachenfels,  112. 
Dresden,  396,  405,  408. 
Driessler,  J.  U.,  184. 
Drisius,  50-55. 
Dryden,  Miss.,  519. 
Dubuque,  la.,  409  sq.,  514. 
Duchee,  Jacob,  288. 
Dunkards,  187,  297. 
Dutch    and    German,    127    sqq.  ;     in 

South  Carolina,  132. 
Dutchess  County,  N.  Y.,  132. 
Dylander,   John,    97,    loi   sqq.,   107, 

189,  217,  225,  237. 
Earltown.     See  New  Holland,   Lan- 
caster County,  Pa. 
Early,  J.  W.,  358. 
East  Camp,  N.  Y.,  153. 
East  India  Co.,  47. 
East  Pennsylvania  Synod,  386,  458, 

467. 
Easton,  Pa.,  294. 
Ebenezer,  Ga.,  159,  161  sq.,  177  sq., 

215,  220  sq.,  245  sqq.,  336. 
Ecclcsia  piantanda,  210. 
Eckstein,  140. 
Edman,  Dr.  (India),  519. 
Education  for  the  ministry,  334,  353. 
Edzardi,  E.,  89. 
Egede,  Hans,  17. 
Eichelberger,  L.,  369,  390,  434. 
Eilsen,  Filing,  412  sq. 
Limbeck,  210,  243,  267. 
Elders,    37,    42    sq.,    107,    148,    182, 

243  sq.,  259,  263,  265  sq. 
Eliot,  John,  83. 
Elizabeth,  N.  J.,  382. 
Elk  River,  Md.,  95. 
Ellison,  Thomas,  319. 
Elsass,  187. 
Embden,  no. 

Emigration.     See  Immigration. 
Endiich,  J.,  485. 
Endress,  C.  F.,  314,  334,  359. 


INDEX. 


529 


Eneberg,  John,  loi,  104,  189. 

England,  King  of,  124,  144,  279; 
Reformation  in,  62. 

English  Ohio  Synod,  458,  464,  466, 
472,  476. 

English  preaching  and  services,  94, 
98,  100  sq.,  103,  107,  109,  127, 
238,  251,  282,  285,  302,  327  sqq. 

Episcopacy,  283,  375. 

Episcopal  theory,  74. 

Episcopalians  and  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church,  21,  94,  98,  212,  237, 
247,  278  sqq.,  282  sqq.,  288,  294, 
298,  304  sq.,  318  sqq.,  330,  341, 
356,  358,  362,  397»  414,  516. 

Episcopate,  the  Lutheran,  13.  See 
Bishops. 

Erasmus,  23,  25. 

Erfurt,  136  sq.,  396. 

Erlangen,  121,  408. 

Ernesti,  148,  317. 

Ernst,  F.  W.,  500;  J.  F.^   t^t^t^,  341. 

Esbjorn,  L.  P.,  413,  433  sq.,  449. 

Esch,  John,  24. 

Esopus,  N.  Y.,  115. 

Evangelical  Alliance,  366,  432. 

"  Evangelical  Lutheran,"  441. 

"  Evangelical    Magazine,"  321,   330, 

344. 
"  Evangelical  Review,"  370,  389,  441, 

494. 
Exorcism,  40,  68,  426. 
Extreme  unction,  68. 
Fabricius,  Jacob,  58. 
Fabritius,  Jacob,  57  sqq.,  86  sq.,  106 

sq.,  188,  267. 
Fahlun,  Sweden,  94. 
Falck,  Gabriel,  41. 
Falckner,    Daniel,   96  sq.,    ill,    121, 

187  sq.  ;   Justus,  92,  96-8,  iii,  118 

sq.,  123,  125,  135,  143,  170,  187. 
Falckner's    Swamp,    iii,    187,    190, 

204.     See  New  Hanover. 
Family  life,  15;   worship,  326. 
Fassberg  (Sweden),  81. 
Fecht,  70. 

Festivals,  church,  264. 
Finland,  445. 
Finley,  Pres.,  288. 
Finnish,  88. 

Flacius,  27,  29  sq.,  32,  38. 
Fliedner,  Theodore,  40,  387. 


Foreign  missions.     See  India,  Africa, 

Japan. 
Formula  of  Concord,  31-3,  41,  116, 

212,  222. 
Fort  Trinity,  85  sq. 
Fort    Wayne,    Ind.,    400,    406,  461, 

464  sqq.,  468,  471,  476  sqq.,  51 1, 

514. 
Four  points,  476  sqq. 
Fox,  A.  J.,  392. 
Franciscan,  296. 
Francke,  A.  H.,  96,    136,   196,  223, 

287,  399;  G.  A.,  141  sq.,  160,  179, 

182,    184,    191,    193,    195   sq.,  200, 

212  sq.,  221. 
Franckean  Synod,  384,  433,  455  sqq.  ; 

declaration  of,  384,  457  sq. 
Frank,  Pastor,  296. 
Frankenberg,  Hesse,  184. 
Frankfort  (Main),  30,   61,    no,   1 12, 

158  (Phila.),  94;  company,  iiosq., 

181. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  202,  287,  321. 
Franklin  County,   Pa.,  292;   college, 

321   sqq.,  2)ZZi  420;  professorship, 

322. 
Frederica,  Ga.,  183. 
Frederichs,  J.  G.,  297  sq. 
Frederick  L  (Prussia),  148. 
Frederick  IL   and   IIL    (Palatinate), 

115- 

Frederick,   Md.,   225,   227,  292,  334, 

359,  390,  392,  438  sq. 
Frederick  William  I.  (Prussia),  140, 

153,  155,  158- 
Frederick    William    IIL     (Prussia), 

394. 
Frederus,  285. 
Freethinking,  74. 
Frelinghuysen      (Reformed     pastor), 

131- 
Fresenius,  John  Philip,  185,  187,  191, 

199,  222,  224,  399. 
Freylinghausen,  G.  A.,  141,   302;  J. 

A.,  141. 
Friesland,  West,  34. 
Fritschel,  G.,  410,  481,  493;   S.,  409 

sqq.,  481,  493,  517. 
Fundamental    principles    of    General 

Council,  467,  472  sqq.,  476. 
Fundamentals,  368,  424,  429  sqq. 
Fiirbringer,  400. 


530 


INDEX. 


Galesburg  rule,  482  sq. 
Galle,  Peter  (Sweden),  66. 
Gansfort  (Holland),  23. 
Geissenhainer,  A.  T.,   391,  484;    F. 

W.,  Sr.,  327,  334,  364. 
"  Gemeinschaftliches     Gesangbuch," 

323,  336,  423,  427. 
General  Gouncil,  471,  2,\\i\  passiiii. 
General  Synod,  358  sqq.,  diXi<\  passim. 
General  Synod,  South,  452  sqq.,  506, 

512. 
George  I.  ('England).  279. 
George  II.  (England),  166,  213. 
George  of  Denmark,  142  sq. 
Georgia,  139,  150,  157,  200,  209,  227, 

287,  298,  335. 
Gerberding,  G.  H.,  516. 
Gerdes  (London  pastor),  145. 
Gerhard,  John,  102. 
Gerhardt,  Paul,  336,  339. 
German    Reformed,    102,    124,    147, 

200,   203,  280,    289,  320  sqq.,  330, 

356  sq.,  360  sqq.,   368,   375,   394, 

417. 
German  Society,  374;  Valley,  N.  J-, 

112. 
Germanism  Pennsylvania,  352. 
Germantown,  102,  iii,  189,  200,  204, 

220  sq^q.,  239,  242,  245,   248,  256, 

291  sqq.,  328. 
Germany,  and  Lutheranism,  3  ;   Ref- 
ormation in,  62. 
Gerock,   J.    S.,    258-60,     291,     300, 

302. 
Gersdorf,  von.  Baroness,  211. 
Gettysburg,  322,  365  sq.,  369  sq.,  373, 

386,    389  sqq.,    391    sqq.,  397,  424 

sqq.,  442,  454,  467,  494,  516. 
Giese,  E.  F;,  490. 
G  lessen,  188. 
Gilbert,  D.  M.,  507. 
Glaserus,  Pastor  (Holland),  34. 
Gloria   Dei    Church,    Phila.,   57,   86, 

91-6,  102,  108,  189,  217,  238  sqq., 

263,  303,  305.     See  also  Wicaco. 
Gloria  in  Excelsis,  155. 
Gock,  Carl,  360. 
GoU  (Africa),  519. 
Goransson  (Swedish  pastor),  303. 
Goring,     Pastor     (York),     267,    334, 
^  344  sq. 
Goschenhoppen,  Old,  190. 


Goteborg,  Sweden,  80  sq. 

Gothe,  157. 

Gottingen,   211,   217,   267,  296,   364, 

405  sq. 
Gotwald,  L.  A.,  509  sq. 
Gotvvasser,  52  sqq. 
I  Gown,  297. 
[  Graaf,  William,  293. 
;  Grabau,  J.  A.  A.,  396  sq.,  405. 
Grabner,  A.   L.,  83  sq.,  91,.  99,  102, 

106  sq..    Ill,    116,    118,    124,  126, 

243.  259,  303  sq. 
GrafTenried,  de,  150. 
Greek  Church,  65,  227. 
Greenland,  17. 
Greensburg,  Pa.,  435. 
Greenwald,  E.,  382,  441. 
Greenwich,  Salzburgers  at,  1 13. 
Groete  (Holland),  23. 
Gronau,   Pastor  (Georgia),  139,  158, 

160  sqq.,  215. 
Groning,   C.  W.,  Sr.,    t^%o,  487,  496; 

W.,  519. 
Grosshennersdorf,  211  sqq.,  268. 
Grossman,  G.,  409. 
Grotius,  31,  36. 
Gruner  (Halle),  141. 
Guericke,  H.  E.  F.,  137,  408,  416. 
;  Gunn,  Walter,  379. 
Giinther,  M.,  402. 
!  Guntur,  India,  379,  488,  496,  518. 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  58,  72 ;  College, 

518;  Vasa,  63,  65  sq.,  69  sq. 
Hackensack,   N.    J.,    119,    123,    126, 

251.  293,  339. 
Hagenbach,  C.  R.,  395. 
Hager,  J.  F.,  116. 
Hagerstown,  Md.,  359. 
Plahnbaum  (S.  C),  297. 
Halberstadt,  112. 
Halifax,  N.  S.,  301. 
Halle,    130,    133,    177  sq.,    189,    191, 

193,    198,    205,    211    sq.,   216   sq., 

222,  225,   229,  240,  243  sqq.,  278, 

310, 315,  318,  zzz^  369. 376, 396, 

406,  408,  2CCiA  passim. 
Halle  hymn-book,   143,  336. 
Halle  "  Reports,"  127,  145,  192,  228, 

246. 
Hamburg,  35,  89,  121,  130,  133,  142, 

185,  188,  224,  396. 
Hamilton,  James,  202. 


INDEX. 


531 


Handschuh,  J.  F.,  146,  223  sqq.,  239 

sqq.,    246,    248,     259,     267,     287, 

291  sq. 
Hanover,    Germany,   210,   213,    244, 

246;   House  of,  139,  142,  278  sq.  ; 

York  County,  Pa.,  190,  225. 
Haraldson,  Bp.  Magnus,  74. 
Harkey,  S.  W.,  392,  434,  441. 
Harless,  408,  416. 
Harms,  Claus,  355. 
Harpster,  J.  H.,  496,  519. 
Harrisburg,  Pa.,  334,  367,  495,  508. 
Hartwick    Seminary,    224,    t^t^t^,   368, 

381  sq.,  434;   Synod,  363,  384. 
Hartwig,  J.   C,    132,   224,   239,   240 

sqq.,  250,  280,  301,  310,  332  sq. 
Harvard  University,  315. 
Hasselquist,  T.  N.,  413,  433. 
Hassencamp,  149. 
Hauge,  H.  N.,  412. 
Hausihl    (Hausil,    H-auseal),   B.   M., 

259,  285,  291,  298,  300. 
Hay,  C.  A.,  267,  392,  416. 
Hazelius,  E.  L.,  368  sq.,  371. 
Hebrew  language,  330  sq. 
Hecht,  J.  P.,  m. 
Hedstrand,  225. 
Heidelberg,  Germany,  112  sq.  ;   Pa., 

204;  Catechism,  27,  115,  204. 
Heintzelmann,  J-  D-  M.,  248,  292. 
Heise  (India),  380,  487,  496. 
Helmstadt,  146,  149,  318,  378. 
Helmuth,  J.   C.   H.,   292,   306,    321, 

324,  328,  332,  336,  344  sqq.,  365- 
Henkel,    Count,   211;    G.,    184,    187 

sqq.,    192,    296;     Paul,    334,    343, 

393  sq.  ;  S.  G.,  394. 
Henkels,  392. 
Herbst,  John,  361. 
Hermits,  iii. 
Herrnhut,  211. 
Hesse  Darmstadt,  187. 
Hesselius,  Andrew,  94,  99  sq.,  105; 

Samuel,  100  sq.,  187. 
Heurtein,  S.,  117. 
Heyer,   C.   F.,    335,    374,   377    sqq., 

381  sqq.,  437,  486  sqq.,  496. 
High  mass,  loi,  107. 
Historical  Society,  423. 
Hjort,  Peter,  85. 
Hockheimer  (S.  C),  298. 
Hodge,   A.   A.,   493;    Charles,   365, 

417,  492  sq. 


Hoenecke,  A.,  500. 

Hoffman,  J.  N.,  426. 

Hofguth  (N.  Y.),  128. 

Hofling,  J.  W.  F.,  408. 

Ilofmann,  J.  C.  K.  (Erlangen),  408. 

Holgh,  Israel  (Sweden),  84. 

Holland,    Lutheran    Church   in,    21- 

106. 
Holman,  S.  A.,  494. 
Holstein,  124. 

Holston  Synod,  334,  384,  512. 
Home   missions,    334   sq.,    374,   381 

sqq-,  437,  485  sqq. 
Hoofman,  Martin,  59. 
Horn,  E.  T.,  507,  512. 
Host,  elevation  of,  71. 
Hudson,  Henry,  47. 
Humboldt,  von,  Alex.,  294. 
Hunnius,  Nicolaus,  416. 
Hurst,  Bp.  J.  F.,  176. 
Hutter,  E.  W.,  392. 
Hymn  boards,  108;  books,  324,327, 

336  sq.,  399. 
Hymns,   96,  154,  159,  172,  230,  234, 

251,  324- 

Iceland  and  Icelanders,  445,  522. 

Illing,  285. 

Illinois,  351,  374,  411,  446  sq.  ; 
State  University,  392,  413,  434, 
449;  Synod,  458,  466  sq.,  476, 
481,  499. 

Illuminism,  395. 

Immigrant  mission,  486. 

Immigration,  German,  no  sq.,  115, 
127,  188,  191,  234,  246,  296,  351 
sqq.,  382,  396,  445  sqq.  ;  Scandina- 
vian, 411,  445  sqq. 

India,  missions  to,  139,  143  sq.,  147, 
165,  211,  228,  375   sqq.,  486  sqq., 

,     518  sq. 

Indiana,  335,  351,  374,  446. 

Indianfield,  196. 

Indians,  North  American,  47,  80  sqq., 
99,  114,  130,  150,  167  sqq.,  224, 
301,  332,  381,  410,  419. 

Intermarriages,  352,  356. 

'' Intuitu  fide i,'''  504. 

Iowa,  411,  419,  435;  English  Synod 
of,  458;  German  Synod  of,  408 
sq.,  472,  476,  481,  503,  514,  51^ 

Isabella  of  Denmark,  24. 

Jablonski  (Berlin),  148. 
i  Jacksonville,  111.,  387. 


532 


INDEX. 


Jacobs,  David,  373 ;   Michael,  373. 

Jacobsen,  J.  C,  500. 

James  Island,  S.  C,  132;  River,  Va., 

150. 
Japan,  mission  to,  520. 
Jefiferson  College,  353,  373. 
Jena,  39,  211. 
Jerusalem,  J.  F.  W.,  317. 
Jesuits,  47,  70. 

Jews,  missions  to,  89,  139,  224. 
Jogues,  47,  50. 

John  Casimir  (Palatinate),  116. 
Kahnis,  K.  F.  A.,  408. 
Kaiserswerth,  387. 
Kalm,  P.  (Stockholm),  loi,  109. 
Keffer,  Adam,  387. 
Keller,  Benjamin,  361,  389,  439,  461 ; 
^  Ezra,  374,  385. 
Kelpius,  III. 
Kensington,  57,  87. 
Kentucky,  335,  351.  374- 
Keyl,  E.  G.  W.,  397. 
Kieft,  Gov.,  47  sq. 
Kiel,  28. 

Kinderlehre,  233,  260. 
King,  Melchior,  66. 
Kingsessing      (Phila.),      237,      257, 

281. 
Kingston,  N.  Y.,  115. 
"  Kirchenbote,"  442. 
"  Kirchenfreund  "  (Schaff's),  417. 
Kistler,  Miss  (India),  519. 
Klove,  A.  A.,  433. 
King,  G.  S.,  165  sq.,  295. 
Knapp,  Albert,  324;  G.  C.,  141 ;  J.  G., 

140. 
Kneeling  at  communion,  42. 
Knipperdolling,  66. 
Knoll,  M.  C.,  124,  126  sqq. 
Knos  (Upsala),  73  sq.,  78  sq.  , 

Knut,  Archbp.,  65. 
Koch's  "  Kirchenlied,"  155. 
Kocherthal,  Joshua,  112-30,  230. 
Kock,  Peter,  102,  104,  216,  238  sqq., 

253.  343- 
Kohler,  J.,  507. 
Konig,  30. 
Koppe,  J.  B.,  317. 
Koren,  U.  V.,  412. 
Koster,  1 11. 
Kraft,  Valentine,  205. 
Krause,  L.,  411. 


Krauter  (London  pastor),  145. 

Krauth,  Charles  Philip,  190,  370,  373, 
394,  416,  420,  423;  Charles  Porter- 
field,  287,  392,  416  sqq.,  424,  427 
sqq.,  440  sq.,  462  sq.,  465,  472, 
483  sq.,  491  sqq.,  504;  Harriet 
Reynolds,  485. 

Kriegsheim,  no. 

Kropp,  510. 

Krotel,  G.  F.,  392,  440,  461,  463, 
465,  484. 

Krug,  J.  A.,  286,  292. 

Kuder,  C.  F,,  519. 

Kugler,  Miss,  519. 

Kuhn,  Daniel,  294,  303  sq. 

Kunze,  J.  C,  285,  292  sqq.,  301,  306, 
310  sq.,  315,  318  sq.,  324,  327  sq., 

33 1 »  UZ^ZZ^,  339  sq.,  344- 
Kurtz,   Benjamin,   369,  397,  424,  432 

sqq.,  435,  44°  sq.  ;  J.  Daniel,  388; 

J.  Nicholas,  222,  231,  240  sq.,  291 

sq.,  321,  332,   369,  388;  William, 

292  sq. 
Laird,  Samuel,  465,  507. 
Laity,  364. 
Lancaster,    Pa.,    102    sq.,    189,  221, 

225,   239,  242,   245,  248,  260,  291, 

294,  321,   328,  331,  361,  392,  420, 

451,466. 
Lancaster  Conference,  Pa.,  334,  357; 

County,  Pa.,  188,  295. 
Landau,  112. 

Lange,  Gottfried,  212;  Joachim,  143. 
Lange's  Commentaries,  389. 
Langenreindsdorf,  Saxony,  96. 
Langerfeldt,  J.  A.,  185. 
Language    questions,    87,     loi,    107, 

109,  127  sq.,    129,   226,   229,   238, 

251,  256,  282,    285,  320,  327  sqq., 

ZZ^^  357,  360,  364,  370,  384,  406, 

510  sqq. 
Lankenau,  J.  D.,  521. 
Lapps,  missions  to,  17. 
Larson,  P.  L.,  412. 
La  Salle  County,  III,  412. 
Laws  against  Lutherans,  51. 
Lay    delegates,    241    sqq.,   259,   261, 

320. 
Lebanon  County,  Pa.,  191,  292  sqq., 

361. 
Lebanon,  Pa.,  392. 
Lederer,  John,  150. 


INDEX. 


533 


Lee,  Maj.-Gen.  Henry,  346. 

Leechburg,  Pa.,  467. 

Legacies,  European,  325. 

Legal  trials,  329,  467. 

Lehigh  County,  Pa.,  292  sq.,  361. 

Lehman,  W.  F.,  391,  394,  500. 

"  Lehre  und  Wehre,"  408,  500. 

Leibnitz,  148. 

Leipzig,   70,    136  sq.,  204,   212,  300, 

398,  408. 
Leister,  Jacob,  61. 
Lemke,  H.  H.,  179,  298. 
Lenker,  J.  N.,  517. 
Lent,  42. 

Lexington,  S.  C,  369,  390,  434. 
Leyden,  ^t,,  40. 

Library,  Congregational,  122,  264. 
Licentiate  system  and  licentiates,  261, 

312,  357  sq. 
Lidenius,  Abraham,  94,  lOO,  255. 
Lidkoping,  Bishop  of,  67. 
Lidman,  Jonas,  100,  105,  124. 
Ligarius,  John,  40. 
Limerick,  Ireland,  113. 
Lincoln,  Pres.,  452. 
Lindner,  Prof,,  398. 
Linkoping,  Bishop  of,  65. 
Litany,  297,  336. 
Lithuania,  157. 
Liturgy,  71,  116,  147,  214,  239  sqq., 

242  sqq.,  262,   267  sqq.,   296,   338 

sq.,  340  sqq.,  506  sqq. 
Livingstone,  Robert,  113  sq.,  187. 
Lochman,  A.   H.,   291;   J.   G.,   314, 

334,  343,  345,  359,  361,  388. 
Lock,  Lars,  84  sqq. 
Lohe,  W.,  484. 
London,   Bishop   of,    281    sqq.,  284; 

Lutheran  churches  in,  22,  122,  142 

sqq.,  182,  191,  214,  224. 
Long,  A.,  381. 

Loonenburg,  N.  Y.,  123,  126. 
Lord's  Day,  427. 
Lord's  Supper,  6,  11,  28,  34,  38,  42, 

68,   98,    201,   215,   226,   232,    241, 

260,  272  sqq.,  277,  289,   316,  338, 

341  sq.,  394,  427,  431,  480. 
Loscher,  V.  L.,  25. 
Louis  XIV.,  112. 
Louvain,  doctors  of,  23. 
Loy,  M.,  392,  472,  500. 
Liibeck,  63,  no,  136. 


Liineburg,  121,  136;   order,  267. 

Lunenburg,  Nova  Scotia,  301. 

Lusatia,  211. 

Lute  or  Lunt,  Charles,  304. 

Luther,  24,  64,  68  sq.,  115,  316,  331, 

ZZ^,  339- 

Luther's  catechisms,  30,  40  sq.,  83, 
197,  203,  233,  315,  317,  327,  343, 
363,  509,  520. 

Luther  College,  500;  Jubilee,  524 
sqq.  ;  League,  515. 

"Lutheran  and  Missionary,"  462; 
"Evangelist,"  369;  "Intelli- 
gencer," 389  sq.  ;  "  Magazine," 
390;  "Observer,"  369,  379,  384, 
390,  392,  424,  441;  "Standard," 
441. 

"  Lutheraner,"  405. 

Liitzen,  battle  of,  72. 

Lyons,  N.  Y.,  382. 

Lyser,  Polycarp,  31. 

Madison  County,  Va.,  184,  295. 

Magens,  J.  S.,  343. 

Magnus,  John,  Archbp.,  65,  67. 

Magnusson,  Peter,  Bp.,  78  sq. 

Maine,  Lutherans  in,  301. 

Malander,  William,  97. 

Manatawny,  Pottstown,  Pa.,  97. 

Manathanim,  100. 

Manfuss  (Sweden),  63. 

Manhattan  Island,  47  sq. 

Manitoba,  522. 

Mann,  W.  J.,  109,  146,  213,  220, 
262  sq.,  275,  277,  287,  289,  306, 
337,  39i»  417,  420,  422,  426,  461 
sqq.,  493,  505,  516. 

Manning,  J.,  382. 

Marburg  hymn-book,  296,  336  sqq. 

Margaret  of  Parma,  23. 

Martin,  J.  N.,  297  sq. 

Martin  Luther  College,  396 ;   Society, 

515- 
Martz,  G.  J.,  380. 
Maryland,    95,    235,   247,   295,    331, 

432 ;     Synod,   263,   359,   363,   365, 

390,  432,  458 ;  and  Virginia  Synod, 

263. 
Mass,  the,  424  sq.,  431. 
Matin  service,  loi,  107. 
Maurice  of  Orange,  36. 
Mayer,  F.  W.,  m\   P.  F.,  317,  IZZ, 

341,  344,  392. 


534 


INDEX, 


McMaster,  J.  B.,  162,  234,  236. 
Mechling,  J.,  382. 
Megapolensis,  50,  53,  55,  86. 
Melanchthon,    -^i,  68,   70,    115,    117; 

Synod,  432  sqq.,  448  sq.,  456. 
Melsheimer,  F.  V.,  321  sq. 
Mendota,  111.,  410. 
Mennonites,  in,  187. 
Mentzer,  B.,  212. 
Mercersburg,  Pa.,  417. 
Methodists,  313,  319,  336,  345. 
Michaelis,  317. 
Michaelius,  48. 
Michigan,   Synod  of,  410,  472,  476, 

481,  513. 
Middleburg,  N.  Y.,  115. 
Middletown,  Pa.,  294. 
Midland  College,  Kansas,  518. 
Miller,    G.    B.,    368,  389    sq.,    434; 

Jacob,   388;    R.   J.,   319    sq.  ;    S., 

365- 
Milwaukee,  Wis.,  387,  410  sq.,  446, 

.5i>  521. 
Ministerial  robe,  107. 
Ministry,  7 ;  native,  293. 
Minneapolis,  Minn.,  446,  513. 
Minnesota,      335,     437,     446,    481; 

Synod,  466,  472,  499,  513. 
Minuit,  Peter,  48,  80. 
"  Missionary,   The,"  386,  424,   428, 

441. 
Mississippi  Valley,  374,  413,  438. 
Missouri,  Norwegians  in,  411. 
Missouri  Synod,  396  sqq.,  412,  428, 

450,   467,   478,   486,  498    sq.,   502 

sqq.,  516;    English,  509. 
Mohammedans,  missions  to,  139. 
Moldenke,  E.  F.,  484. 
Moller,  H.,  310. 
Moller's  "  Postils,"  87. 
Moltke,  Von,  405. 
Monocacy,  Md.,  225. 
Montgomery  County,  Pa.,    lOO,    188, 

190,  291  sqq.,  295;   Va.,  334. 
Moravians,    139    sq.,    161,    168,    171, 

175,    190,  197,  204,  225  sqq.,  237, 

250,  314,  319. 
Morris,  J.  G.,  389  sq.,  394,  416,  440, 

495  sq. 
Moser,  J,  R.,  394. 
Mount  Airy,  no,  518. 
Mount  Vernon,  387. 


Muhlenberg,  H.  M.,  102  sq.,  in, 
115,  127,  129  sq.,  139,  141,  144, 
146,  148,  161,  187,  192,  204,  209- 
309,  320,  324  sqq.,  327,  331,  336 
sq.,  362,  389,  398,  431,  461,  463, 
505,  523;  F.  A.  (Rev.  and  Hon.), 
286,  294,  300  sq.,  310;  F.  A. 
(Prof.  Dr.),  293,  343,  374,  420, 
467;  H.  A.,  286,  314,  328,  331, 
ZZl,  388;  H.  E.,  286,  294,  314, 
321  sqq.,  327,  331  sqq.,  336,  343; 
Peter,  269,  283  sqq.,  292,  294  sq., 
328  sq.  ;  W.  A.,  294,  356,  387. 

Muhlenberg  College,  467,  490;  Mis- 
sion, 497. 

Miihlhauser,  J.,  410. 

Muskeego  settlement,  411. 

Naesman,  Gabriel,  103,  107,  237 
sqq.,  253. 

Nantes,  Edict  of,  116. 

Nashkow,  P.  S.,  343. 

Negroes,  119,  167  sq.,  231. 

Nertunius,  Matthias,  85. 

Neshaminy,  100. 

Nevin,  J.  W.,  418,  491  sq. 

New  Amsterdam,  49-58,  86.  See 
New  York. 

New  Berne,  N.  C,  113. 

New  Ebenezer,  Ga.,  164,  174. 

New  Hanover,  187,  190,  192,  216 
sqq.,  221,  223,  230  sq.,  242,  245, 
292,  294. 

New  Haven,  Conn.,  160. 

New  Holland,  188,  190,  242,  292. 

New  Jersey,  in,  125,  223,  247,  291 
sq.,  294.  See  German  Valley, 
Hackensack,  etc. 

New  Market,  Va.,  296,  334,  365. 

New  measures,  384,  418. 

New  Paltz,  N.  Y.,  115. 

New  York,  46-61,  94,  98,  106  sq., 
112,  117  sq.,  121-8,  209,  216,  227, 
247,  250,  252  sqq.,  260,  288,  292, 
300  sq.,  310,  327,  ZZZ^  and  pas- 
sim;  Ministerium  of,  294,  301,  310, 
313  sqq.,  317  sqq.,  324,  335,  341, 
354,  357  sqq.,  Z^Z^  382,  384  sq., 
428,  437,  464,  466  sq.,  476,  481, 
514;   Synod  of,  467. 

Newark,  N.  J.,  382. 

Newberry,  S.  C,  434,  455,  513. 

Newburg,  N.  Y.,  113,  116,  132. 


INDEX. 


535 


Newlanders,  235,  247. 

Newton,  N.  Y.,  123. 

Nicuni,  J.,  50,  52,  58,  257,  318,  516. 

Niemeyer,  141. 

Niewenhuysen,  Van,  60. 

Noailles,  de,  Cardinal,  196. 

Norberg,  81,  106,  304. 

Norborg,  loi. 

Nordkiel,  242. 

Norelius,  E.,  413,  450. 

Nermann,  George,  69. 

North  Carolina,  184,  247,  296,  318 
sqq-,  334.  394,  SH!  College,  392, 
434;   Synod,  335,  357  sqq.,  393. 

North  Dakota,  446,  522. 

North  German.  Missionary  Society, 
381,  487. 

North  Illinois  Synod,  412  sq.,  421, 
448  sq.,  458. 

Norton,  Charles  F.,  464. 

Norwegian  Church  in  America,  Nor- 
wegian Synod,  412,  472,  499  sq., 

503,  513- 

Norwegians,  411  sqq.,  448. 

Nosselt,  141. 

Nuremberg,  154. 

Nussman,  Adolph,  296. 

O'Callaghan,  51,  55. 

Officer,  M.,  497. 

Oglethorpe,   157,  159,  170,  173,  184. 

Ohio,  334  sq.,  351,  357,  374,  446', 
Synod  of,  358  sqq.,  382,  385  sq., 
389,  391  sq.,  428,  458,  472,  476, 
478,   481,   499  sq.,   503,    509,    514, 

516. 

Ohl,  J.  F.,  507. 

Old  Lutherans,  395. 

Oley,  Pa.,  204. 

"  Olive  Branch,"  441  ;  synod,  458, 
476,  481,  499  sq.,  503,  509,  514, 
516,  521. 

Omaha,  Neb.,  521. 

Orange  (now  Madison)  County,  Va., 
191. 

Orangeburg,  S.  C,  184. 

Ordination,  43,  262,  283  sq.,  285, 
292,  302,  319;  First  Lutheran,  92; 
of  Kurtz,  242  ;  Lutheran  vs.  Epis- 
copal, 375;  pledge,  73;  Swedish, 
77,  97,  106. 

Organization,  plans  of,  124,  181,  209, 
237. 


Orphanages,  Ebenezer,  168,  176; 
Germantown,  295  ;  Gottingen,  211  ; 
Grosshennersdorf,  211  ;  Halle,  138, 
143,  158,  176,  211;  Pittsburg, 
Zelienople,  and  Rochester,  386; 
Whitefield's,  176. 

Osiander,  32  sq. 

Osnaburg,  Bishop  of,  279. 

Otsego  County,  N.  Y.,  i^tZ- 

Otto,  Henry  (Palatinate),  115. 

Oversight,  244,  260  sq. 

Palamcotta,  India,  375,  488. 

Palatinate  and  Palatinates,  46,  II2- 
19,  144,  150,  184,  187,  292. 

Palatine  Bridge,  115,  130. 

Palnaud,  India,  380,  489,  496,  519. 

Papegoija,  Gov.,  85. 

Paradise  Point,  -80. 

Parent,  Education  Society,  374. 

Parish  assemblies  (Swedish),  74. 

Park,  Edwards,  417. 

Parlin,  Olaf,  253. 

Parochial  schools,  244,  447  sq. 

Pasche  (London  pastor),  284. 

Passavant,  W.  A.,  Sr.,  386  sq.,  424, 
441,  461,  490,  520  sq. 

Passion  history,  42,  332. 

Pastoral  conferences,  37. 

Pastorius,  no,  112. 

Pastors,  election  of,  74,  76. 

Paulsen,  I.  K.,  489. 

Paxton,  111.,  413,  450. 

Peery,  R.  B.,  520. 

Pemberton,  Ebenezer,  288. 

Penn,  William,  88,  97,  100. 

Pennsneck,  N.  J.,  100,  102. 

Pennsylvania  College,  322,  373,  390, 
420,  454,  467  sq.,  510;  Ministerium 
of,  126,  224,  241,  243,  253,  260  sq., 
293,  302,  310  sqq.,  322,  338,  343 
sq.,  356  sqq.,  361,  363,  368,  372, 
376,  380-6,  388,  391  sq.,  418,  420 
sqq.,  428,  433  sqq.,  450,  458  sqq., 
484,  496;    University  of,  281,  295, 

332,  365- 
Perkiomen,  Pa.,  282. 
Perry,  Bp.  W.  S.,  191,  281. 
Perry  County,  Mo.,  397,  400,  405. 
Peters,  Richard,  148,  282,  288. 
Petri,  Lars,  64-8,  78 ;   Olaf,  64-9. 
Pfeifler,  G.  H.,  313. 
Philadelphia,  94,    in,    189  sqq.,  200 


536 


INDEX. 


sq.,    216  sq.,    221,    237,   239,  242, 

245,  248,  256,  260,  263,  292,  330 
sq.,    345   sqq.,    361,    365    sq.,    376, 

389,  392,  439,  461  sqq.,  496,  507 
sq.,  520  sq. 

Philippi,  F.  A.,  405. 

Phillips,  Rev.,  98. 

Pieper,  F.,  513. 

Pietism,  113,  133  sqq.,  141,  212,  243, 

246,  267,  366,  396,  398. 
Pittsburg,   294,    296,   433,    467,    479, 

520;  Synod  of,  386  sq.,  421,  435, 
437,  458,  460,  464^  466  sq.,  472, 
476 ;  declaration,  477. 

Platt-Deutsch,  ill. 

Plutscliau,  139. 

Pohl,  E.,  519. 

Pohlman,  H.  N.,  390. 

Polity,  theories  of,  13  sqq.,  468  sq., 
474  sq. 

Ponierania,  58. 

Pottstown,  Pa.,  100. 

Prayer,  book,  336,  371 ;  extempora- 
neous, 343,  371;  general,  338,  342 
sq.  ;  meetings,  42. 

Predestination  controversy,  394,  502 
sqq. 

Preparatory  service,  40  sq.,  68,  127, 
129,  201,  228,  232,  480. 

Presbyterian  Church  and  Presbyte- 
rians,  21,   288,   356;    government, 

74- 
President  of  Synod,  244,  260  sq.,  311, 

407. 
Preuse,  A.  C.  and  H.  E.,  412. 
Princeton,  N.  J.,   288,   353,   365  sq., 

390,  407. 

Printz,  Andrew,  82,  88. 
Private  confession,  228,  232,  422  sqq. 
Prohibitory  legislation,  446  sq. 
Providence,  Pa.     See  Trappe. 
Provosts,  Swedish,  77,  105,  241,  243, 

353- 
Prussian  Union,  355,  394,  400,  416. 
"  Psalmodia  Germanica,"  339  sq. 
Publication  Society,  439,  468. 
Pulpit  and  pulpit  fellowship,  37,  98, 

100,  265,  277,  289,  479  sq. 
Purrysburg,  S.  C,  150,  164. 
Quakers,   46,   55,  no,  117,  147,  187, 

204,  231,  392. 
"  Quarterly  Review,"  494. 


Quitman,  F.  IT.,  315,  318,  324,  341, 

344,  385;  J.  A.,  ^zz- 
Rabenhorst,  Christian,  180,  299. 
Racoon,  N.  J.,  95,  102,  255,  304. 
Rajahmundry,    India,    380,    487,    489 

sq.,  496,  519. 
Raritan,  N.  J.,  123,  223  sq.,  252. 
Rationalism,   40-5,   74,  309,  313  sq., 

317  sq.,  324,  398  sq. 
Rauss,  Lucas,  291. 
Reading,  Pa.,  241,  291  sq.,  331,  361, 

388,  392,  426,  472,  483,  487. 
Real  presence,  6,  424. 
Reck,  von.   Baron,    160  sq.,   170  sq., 

189,  191  ;   Henry,  386. 
Redemptioners,  235  sq. 
Reformation,    tercentenary    of,    335, 

351.  356. 
Reformed,   27-49,   54,   116,  147,  189, 

203,   231,   252;   Dutch,   52-5,   124, 

130.      See  German  Reformed. 
Reichstag,  the  Swedish,  76. 
Remensnyder,  J.  B.,  506,  517. 
Repass,  S.  A.,  507. 
Reynolds,  W.  M.,  255,  314,  370,  374, 

386,  391,  414. 
Rhenius,  C.  L.  E.,  375  sq.,  487  sq. 
Rhinebeck,  N.  Y.,  115,  123,  131,  224, 

239,  319- 
Richards,  J.  W.,  269,  388. 
Ries,  J.  F.,  129,  250. 

Rising,  Gov.,  85. 

Roanoke  College,  Va.,  392,  434,  455. 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  382,  410  sq. 
Rock  Island,  111.,  413,  450. 
Rockbridge  County,  Va.,  334. 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  Romanism, 
etc.,   21,  60,   67,   70,   74,  147,  149, 

157,  175,  311. 
Ross,  George,  98,  103.  . 
Roth,    D.    L.,    278,    280,    295,    302; 

H.  W.,  490;  J.  D.,  517. 
Rotterdam,  34,  158. 
Rowan  County,  N.  C,  296. 
Rowe,  A.  D.,  496  sq. 
Rudman,  Andrew,  81,  90-8,  102,  105, 

107. 
Rudolph,  Carl,  227. 
Ruperti  (London  pastor),  144. 
Rural  parishes,    313,    320,    325   sq., 

360  sq. 
Saccum,  242. 


INDEX. 


537 


Sadtler,  Missss  (India),  519. 
Salzburg    and    Salzburgers,    144-52, 

214,  216,  225,  287. 
Samulcotta,  India,  487. 
Sandel,  Andrew,  93,  97  sq.,  105,  107. 
Sanden,  Von,  189. 

Sandford,  L.  H.,  Vice-chancellor,  385. 
Sandin,  John,  89,  103,  105,  253. 
Saur,  Chr.,  336. 
Savannah,  Ga.,  159,  168,  178  sq.,  184, 

300,  336. 
Savoy    Church    (London),    142,    146, 

183,  224,  267  sq. 
Schaeffer,   C.  F.,   293,  389  sq.,   394, 

420,   422  sq.,  427,  440,   461  sqq.  ; 

C.   W.,   269,    375,    391,    440,    463, 

489,    507;   D.   F.,    334,    359,   390; 

F.  C,  317;   F.  D.,  317,  327,  345, 

378,  388  sqq. 
Schaff,  P.,  115,  324,  326,  417  sq.,  493. 
Schaitberger,  Joseph,    152,  154,  157, 

163. 
Scharbach,  296. 
Schaum,  J.  H.,  222,  291. 
Scheele,  von,  K,  H.  G,,  Bp,,  517. 
Scherer,  D.,  359,  521. 
Schlatter,  M.,  288  sqq.,  302,  320. 
Schleiermacher,  355,  395. 
Schleydom,  Henry,  216,  238,  289. 
Schliisselberg,  Conrad,  31. 
Schmeisser,  J.  G.,  302,  343. 
Schmid,  F.  (Michigan),  410. 
Schmidt,  F.  A.,  502  sq.  ;   H.  C,  487, 

489,  519;   H.  I.,  391,  416;  J.  F., 

286,  292,  327,  T,zi. 
Schmucker,  B.  M.,  30,   54,    106,   204 

sq.,  263,  266  sqq.,  317  sq.,  338  sq., 

343  sq.,  392,  465,  484,  S07;  J-  G-, 

314,  323,  345,  359,  365,  388;  S.  S., 

334,   2>^2,  sqq.,  426  sq.,  440,  462, 

494. 
Schober,  G.,  319,  358  sq. 
Schoharie,   N.   Y.,  114  sq.,  123,  130, 

144,  190,  310,  335,  352. 
Schoner,  J,  D.,  192. 
Schools,  parish,  75  ;   Swedish,  104. 
Schreuder,  Pastor,  412. 
Schrock,  53,  67  sq. 
Schultz,  F.,  292,  302,  338. 
Schultze,  C.  E.,  286,  292,  321,  332; 

J.  A.  (Gov.),  292,  352;  J.  C,  188, 

191,  193;   L.,  141. 


Schwartz,  C.  F.,  139,  376. 

Schwerdfeger,  310. 

Secret  s(jcieties,  477  sqq. 

Sects,  88,  191  sq.,  230,  247. 

Seidensticker,  O.,  236. 

Seiss,  J.  A.,    391,    439  sq.,  465  sq., 

476,  484  sq.,  493,  496,  507. 
Selins grove.  Pa  ,435. 
Selskoorn,  86. 
Semler,  140  sq.,  309,  317. 
Separatists,  395. 
Services,  week-day,  264. 
Shenandoah  Valley,  Va.,  295,  455. 
Silesia,  58. 

Skara,  Bishop  of,  68,  78,  loi,  104. 
Slavery,  loi,  129,  167. 
Smith,  H.  B.,  417. 
Snyder,  W.  E.  (India),  380  sq. 
Sommar,  Bp.  Magnus,  78. 
Sommer,  Peter  N.,  130,  310. 
South  Carolina,   292,   296,   320,   373, 

394;   Synod,  360,  376. 
Spaeth,  A.,  484,  493,  507. 
Spangenberg,  Bp.,  139,  195,  197,  200, 

204,  218. 
Spener,   39,  iii,   133  sqq.,   139,   144, 

164,  196,  211,  369,  399. 
Spielman,  C,  382,  391. 
Sponsors,  38,  108. 
Spottsylvania  County,  Va.,  184. 
Spottwood,  Gov.,  184. 
Sprecher,  S.,  369,  385,  404. 
Springer,  C.  C,  87  sq.  ;   F.,  434. 
Springfield,  111.,   400,  413,  434,  441, 

448. 
Springfield,  O.,  434,  441,  509. 
Sprogle,  J.  H.,  187. 
St.  James,  London,  143. 
St.  Louis,   Mo.,    146,  400  sqq.,  498, 

500. 
St.  Sebald,  la.,  410. 
St.  Thomas,  118,  170. 
Stauch,  John,  334,  382. 
Steck,  J.  M.  and  M.  J.,  382. 
Steiner,  289. 

Stephan,  Martin,  396  sqq.,  405. 
Stevens,  Bp.,  156,  179. 
Stirewalts,  392;  J.,  394. 
Stockholm,  massacre  of,  63  sq. 
Stoever,  J.  C,  Sr.,  185,  193,  295  ;  J. 

C,  Jr.,  188-91,  204,  224,  275,  295  ; 

M.  L.,  293,  374,  440. 


538 


INDEX. 


Stone  Arabia,  N.  Y.,  130. 

Storch,  C,  A.  G.,  320. 

Stork,  C.  A.,  434;  T.,  392,  434,  440. 

Strassburg,  39,  221. 

Strebeck,  G.,  313,  319,  327,  340  sq. 

Streit,  C,  294,  297,  304. 

Strengnas,  Diet  of,  64,  68,  78. 

Strobel,  P.  A.,  162. 

Stuyvesant,  Peter,  48  sqq. 

Sumanwader,  Bp.^  65. 

Summits  episcopiis,  69,  73,  76. 

Sunday-school  Union,  Lutheran,  374. 

Suomai  Synod,  522. 

Superintendency,  245,  279. 

Svedberg,  Jaspar,  Bp.,  ^2)1  ^9  sq-j  93> 

98-104,  109,  124,  253. 
Sverdrup,  G.,  501. 
Swartz,  Joel,  466. 
Swedes,  46,  412  sqq.,  448  sqq.,  511, 

517,  521. 

Swiss,  150. 

Symbolical  books,  91,  93,  106,  126, 
134,  180,  182,  212,  221  sq.,  226, 
241,  261,  291,  296,  302,  312  sq., 
320,  406,  409  sq.,  418,  422,  429, 
473>  512. 

Symbololatry,  430. 

Synodical  Conference,  513,  516;  con- 
stitutions, 241,  243,  261,  298,  406; 
organization,  259. 

Tawasentha,  treaty  of,  47. 

Te  Deum,  24. 

Tefferegenthal,  151. 

Telugus,  379  sq.,  489. 

Temme,  C.  F.,  344. 

Tennents,  288. 

Tennessee,  334,  351,  394;  Synod, 
392  sqq.,  455,  512. 

Texas,  373,  499. 

Theerbusch,  N.  Y.,  123,  131. 

Thelin,  John,  88. 

Theological  education,  104,  294,  366, 
370. 

Theological  seminaries :  Chicago, 
491,  518;  Columbus,  391,  514; 
Gettysburg,  364  sqq.,  373,  518; 
Minneapolis,  513;  Newberry,  513 
(see  Lexington,  S.  C);  Phila- 
delphia, 461  sqq.,  515;  St.  Louis, 
407,  500.  See  Augustana,  Witten- 
berg, etc. 

Thiel  College,  490. 


Thirty-nine  Articles,  279  sq.,  284, 
297. 

Thirty  Years'  War,  iii,  116,  153. 

Tholuck,  A.,  140  sq. 

Thomasius,  G.,  408,  412. 
I  Thiirnstein,  von,  Count,  203. 
I  Tinacum  (Tinicum),  83-7,  257. 
!  Tohicon,  292. 
i  "Tokens,"  42. 
I  Tollstadius,  93. 
i  Torkillus  Reorus,  81. 

Tranberg,  Peter,  97,  102  sq.,  217, 
240. 

Tranhook,  86,  91. 

Transubstantiation,  431. 

Trappe,  Pa.,  188  sq.,  192,  217,  219, 
221,  223,  242,  245,  255,  263,  299, 
305  sq.,  523. 

Triebner,  C.  F.,  298  sq. 

Trinity,  Fort,  467. 

Tuckerman,  Bayard,  55,  60. 

Twiller,  Von,  W.,  48. 

Uhl,  L.  L.,  519. 

Unander,  Eric,  255. 

Unangst,  E.,  381,  519. 

Uniformity,  21,  242. 

Union  churches,  289,  361. 

United  congregations,  239,  244  sq., 
264 ;  pastors,  247  ;  Protestant  min- 
istry, 282 ;  Synod  of  the  South, 
512,  516,  520. 

United  Presbyterians,  477. 

Unonius,  G.,  414. 

Upland,  85. 

Upper  Merion,  281  ;   Milford,  242. 

Upsala,  65,  93,  loi,  255;  Archbishop 
of,  63,  65,  76,  78,  90,  93,  98,  103, 
303;   Council  of,  71  sq.,  450,  517. 

Urlsperger,  Samuel,  144,  157,  160, 
168,  177,  179  sq.,  182,  184. 

Ursinus,  115,  149. 

Usages,  church,  66,  69. 

Usselinx,  William,  80. 

Utica,  N.  Y.,  382. 

Utrecht,  25;   Union  of,  31. 

Uyetenbogart,  34. 

Valentine,  M.,  507. 

Valett  (India),  487. 

Vaughn,  Canada,  387. 

Velthusen,  J.  C,  145,  296,  318. 

Vesey,  William,  120,  123. 

Vigera,  J.  F,,  221. 


INDEX. 


539 


Virginia,  247,  285,  295  sq.,  334,  351,  I 

357,  359- 
Visby,  64,  517. 

Visitations,  37,  67,  77,  407.  [ 

Wachsel  (London  pastor),  284.  I 

Wackerhagen,  A,,  342. 
Wade,  John,  282,  286,  304. 
Wafers,  297. 
Wagenhals,  J.,  382. 
Wagner,  Andrew,   212;  Tobias,  127, 

220,  275,  285. 
Waldboro',  Me.,  301. 
Walther,  C.   F.   W.,    397   sqq.,   428, 

472,  500,  502  sq.  ;   O.  H.,  397. 
War,  Civil,  434,  454. 
Washington,  Pres.,  ^t^t^,  346  sq.,  360; 

County,  Md.,  292. 
Watertown,  Wis.,  500. 
Watts,  Isaac,  340,  344. 
Weddell,  A.  J.,  346. 
Wedekind,  A.  C,  507. 
Weenas,  A.,  501. 
Weiser,  John  Conrad,  Sr.,  114,  144, 

230;  John    Conrad,    Jr.,    1 14  sq., 

205,  223,  250;   Reuben,  434. 
Weissiger,  Daniel,  192  sq.,  200,  263. 
Welden,  C.  F.,  391,  434,  $07. 
Wenner,  G.  U.,  507. 
Wernigerode,  167,  222. 
Wesley,    Charles,    170,     183;     John, 

148,  169  sqq.,  184. 
West   Camp,    N.   Y.,  113,    117,   123, 

131- 

West  India  Company,  47  sq.,  55,  80. 
West  Pennsylvania  Synod,  263,  363, 

386. 
West  Point,  N.  Y.,  113. 
West,  Synod  of  the,  406. 
West  Virginia,  374. 
Westen,  von,  Thomas,  17. 
Westeras,  65  sqq.,  75,  255. 
Westphalia,  Peace  of,  72,  151. 
Wetzel,  H.,  394. 

Weygand,  J.  A.,  252,  259,  293,  343. 
White,  William,  Bp.,  284,  286,  356. 
Whitefield,  George,  175,  177,  266  sqq. 
Wicaco,   57,   86,   91  sq.,   94,  100  sq., 

107,  124,  188,  253,  257,  281. 
Widows  and  orphans,  43. 
Wildbahn,  C.  F.,  292. 
William  III.  (England),  61. 
William  of  Orange,  26-9,  37  sq. 
Williamsport,  Pa.,  467. 


Williston,  Ralph,  313,  319,  341. 
Wilmington,  Del.  (Christina),  81,  86, 

91,  98,  217,  240,  253,  255,  303  sq. 
Winnipeg,  522. 
Wisconsin,  411  sq.,   446;   Synod  of, 

410,  472,  476,  481,  499. 
Wissahickon,  hermits  of  the,  ill. 
Wittenberg,    Germany,    25,    36,    64; 

College   and  Theological  Seminary 

(Ohio),  122,  369,  385,  434. 
Woerden,  Holland,  27,  33-5. 
Wolf,   E.  J.  (Gettysburg),  507,  515; 

George   (Gov.),   352;  J.   A.  (New 

Jersey),  126. 
WoUey,  Charles,  60. 
Woodstock,  Va.,  295. 
Wordman,  H.  S.  B.,  297. 
Worley,  D.,  391. 
Worship,  principles  of,  1 1. 
Wrangel,  von,  Charles  M.,  92,    105, 

109,   248,    255  sqq.,  259,  262,  264, 

278,    281  sq.,   286,    294,   302  sqq., 

332,  343- 
Wiirtemberg,  187,  246,  291. 
Wyneken,  F.,  405  sqq.,  418  sq. 
Yeiser  (India),  519. 
Yellow  fever,  345. 
Yonce,  W.  B.,  507. 
York,   Bishop  of,  280;   Duke  of,  56, 

60;   Pa.,  227,  239,   242,   268,  291, 

331,    361,    433,    457    sqq.,    495  J 

County,  Pa.,  292,  295  sq. 
Zanesville,  0.,  485. 
Zealand,  27. 
Zeisberger,  David,  170. 
"  Zeitschrift,"  442. 
Zelienople,  Pa.,  435,  460. 
Zenana  work,  519. 
Zetskoorn,  86. 

Ziegenbalg,  17,  138,  278,  376. 
Ziegenhagen,   144,  167,  181  sq.,  191- 

96,  200,  212,  216  sq.,  268,  284,  287. 
Ziegler,  H.,  435. 
Zieken-tivoster,  44. 
Zinzendorf,   Nicholas,    139,  141,  190, 

196  sqq.,    211,   217  sq.,    220,   227, 

237,    246,    263,    268,    278  sq.,   364, 

523- 
Zollikofer,  148. 
Ziibli,  Joachim,  184. 
Ziitphen,  Von,  23. 
Zwickau,  Saxony,  96. 
Zwingli  and  Zwinglianism,  t^t,,  71. 


BW4010.A512c.2v.4*_ 

The  American  church  history  series 

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